Heir Of Slytherin Book 1: Friendship
by Elektra Elentari
Summary: Danny has had a pretty normal life until now. Well... Normal if you count the fact that his parents are dead and he lives in an orphanage. But he isn't very normal himself. His friend Mel will take him on an adventure that he will never forget, one that will not only introduce him to the world of magic, but also help him realise who he really is...
1. The Snake

**Hey there guys. I've been wanting to write this story for ages. I'm so glad I can finally share it with you. I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. I hope I will make seven books in this series. So without further ado, I present you with the first chapter in the Heir Of Slytherin series.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not under any circumstances own Harry Potter. I only own my OCs.**

They say that you don't have any memory of your first and second years. That's a lie, I can remember some parts of my life when I was two. What I remember best is my parents dropping me off at my aunt's one night and telling me that they'd be back soon to pick me up and take me home. Then, I remember that they never came back. I remember crying a lot and that my aunt was nice to me the first three minutes when she told me that she was going to take me for some hot cocoa because hot cocoa solved all problems. She put me in her car and we drove off.

We reached a place I would later learn was called an orphanage and she stopped the car. She took me out, left me in front of the gate and drove off again. I remember that it was dark and cold and that I was scared as hell. Then I remember that the next morning they opened the gate and found me outside, barely conscious. I was carried inside and then the memories get blurry. I just remember that I was sick for days, maybe even weeks, and that the lady who looked after me avoided conversation about my parents and that whenever I asked for them she told me that they couldn't come.

I don't remember meeting Mel, which probably means that she has been my best friend forever. Mel's full name is Melena but she shortens it to Mel because "Who has ever heard of the name Melena!" She's really awesome and isn't that perfect lady stereotype. For example, she loves playing with balls which is mostly a boys' thing. She likes soccer and basketball and, to my surprise, dodgeball. She runs around a lot and doesn't mind getting mud on her shoes on a rainy day, or if her hair gets in a mess on a windy day. But at the same time, she likes quiet spots where she can read her books.

One of the coolest thing about her is her appearance. Even though she is really active and sociable, her appearance gives out a totally different image. She's thin and not tall but not short either, has a cute small nose, freckles, sky blue eyes and this amazing hair. Her hair is long and wavy and is a different colour every day. I don't know which mother would allow her daughter to dye her hair like that, but hers died when she was one year old, along with her father, so I guess it doesn't really matter.

Mel leaves the orphanage once a day. She attends this theatre club, which goes for about one and a half hours. I've been to their performances. I can't say they're artists, but they're still amateurs. The truth is that they look like they don't do enough rehearsals and they keep forgetting lines or when to enter. But the costumes are truly amazing. I remember once, Mel was playing an old lady and her hair, which had been red the rest of the day, had turned white. Or when she played a cat and her hair turned black in a matter of minutes. I guess she goes to the hair place to get it dyed before or after theatre club meetings but I've never really seen her return because they go on for most of the night.

Another thing about Mel that is really awesome is that she's always there for her friends. She's always there for me when I need her, no matter the circumstances, like a guardian angel. Like when those older boys had stuck my head in the toilet, she came into _the boys'_ lavatory to save me. Or when another guy was telling me that no one wanted me, that I was a freak and that my parents were lucky to be dead and be rid of me, she was there to tell him something rather impolite and then comfort me.

Truth be told, I had a problem with talking about my parents. Some other kids said that since my parents died when I was two, I wouldn't remember them but that's not true because I remember my parents and I get teary every time I speak about them. Mel on the other hand, doesn't remember anything from her parents because they died when she was one year old so she talks freely about them. It's unfair that of all the kids whose parents have died when they were young, I have to be the only one to remember them. I've never met someone who can remember thing like I can, and that makes something like a freak to the older boys' eyes.

I've always been bullied, since my first year here. Mel's never been bullied, because she's awesome, but me, I'm totally different. I don't like the same things most boys my age like, like basketball, and I don't listen to the same music as them. My roommates listen to music very loudly and, though I don't mind rock music, I _do_ like it, I'd rather put on my headphones and listen to it either than turn the speakers on as loud as they get and give others a headache. But the fact that I like that music but don't listen to it loudly, isn't enough to stop the bullies. The ladies at the orphanage say that I should try to get along with them. They've been saying this for about eight years, and even though I've tried my best, it's never going to happen.

At least when they're annoying me, Mel is there to support me. For example, when they had stuck my head in the toilet when I was seven years old, I was so scared but she had come to my rescue. She's never left me, not once. At least, not until the day before my eleventh birthday.

I've never really made a fuss about my birthday, that's Mel's job. She's the one, and only one, who gets excited over it. She always dyes her hair my favourite colour, an emerald-like shade of green that day and gets me a present and stuff and wakes up the whole room with her singing. Even though it's kind of embarrassing to have your best friend wake up you and your roommates singing Happy Birthday to you, and the others swear and bury their heads under their pillows to block the noise, I wouldn't change it for anything, because it made me sure that Mel cared for me.

Though the truth is that she's given me odd presents sometimes. When I turned ten, she gave me a black stuffed owl with blue beads for eyes, even though I told her that I was too old for a stuffed animal. But I did keep it on my bed because I liked it a bit, at least she thought of getting me something. Or on my seventh birthday, she gave me a jellybean which I swear tasted like booger. It was the most disgusting thing I've ever eaten, but Mel actually found it funny. She gave me a whole box of jellybeans, but I never ate a single one because I was afraid I'd come across one that would taste like barf or something. I wasn't sure what to expect.

What sucks about my birthday is that it's on the first of September, the same day school starts. I'm never in a good mood that day, because I hate school. I think Mel is the only person who doesn't. She even likes it and admits to be looking forward to high school. One thing was for sure, I wasn't. I didn't see anything special about it, I'd go to the orphanage's high school, try not to fall asleep in class and keep up with the homework which would be very difficult, more difficult than ever. I had no idea why Mel was so excited.

So, on the thirty first of August, the orphanage decided to take us on a trip to the zoo. Trips were really rare and hardly ever happened so everyone was excited. The zoo was a dull place to take us, we weren't five or something, but it was better than nothing. On the other hand, Mel announced that she was terrified of snakes, which meant that while the others were in the Reptile House, we would be sitting on a bench pretending to have fun. I'd rather pretend I was paying attention at school. But of course we couldn't say behind, so I went. Or, more correctly, Mel dragged me to the bus.

On the bus, we listened to music on Mel's iPod. She likes this band I've never heard of and can't even remember their name. They are pretty good but sometimes they say weird words that I don't understand. Mel says that they make them up so they can rhyme which I guess is okay. We didn't really talk on the way. She only asked me if I minded the music. She seemed to want to say something but whatever that was she didn't say it. We could hear the others talking to each other or calling out to people who were sitting farther away from them as we sat next to each other, me looking out of the window, and Mel looking deep in thought.

When we got there, we all gathered up and went on something like a tour through the zoo. Whichever animal we saw, the teachers told us about it, where it lived, what it ate and all that kind of stuff. Few of us paid attention, and I was not one of them. When we reached the lion, I felt like setting it loose on the others. Maybe that would stop their bullying. But of course it was looked and I had zero chances of setting it loose on anyone. The tour went on for ages. I was bored to death because I had heard of these animals doing cool things and these ones just stayed still and looked at us. Some didn't even do that! They looked just as bored as I was.

Our last stop was the Reptile House. The lizards and snakes seemed pretty interesting, but I only got to study the lizards because of Mel's fear of snakes. I saw a chameleon change its colour though, and that was pretty interesting. But then, while others took a look at a bunch of poisonous and not poisonous snakes, which I hoped would jump out of the glass, at least it would be interesting, I sat on a bench with Mel. She thanked me for understanding, but then put on her headphones so she could listen to music while I listened to the tour. I heard something about a cobra and wished Mel would go to the bathroom so I could go see it.

Something else happened though. Mel didn't go to the bathroom but one of the teachers asked to talk to her so she took off her headphones and left me. I decided I found snakes very interesting and made my way to the group so I could take a closer look. Sure enough, a live cobra was sitting behind the glass. "This one is totally awesome!" I whispered to myself after managing to stand right in front of the glass.

 _"Thankssss for the compliment,"_ I heard a voice say. I looked around and then turned back to the snake. Was it just my imagination or was the cobra smiling? I had no idea why, but I started talking to the snake.

"You're welcome!" I told it "I must be sounding so stupid to everyone else right now, talking to you!"

" _Then why are you?"_ It took me ages to realise it was the snake speaking. But how? Snakes don't talk! But I thought about its question for a moment.

"Because I'm desperate!" I finally said "I don't have anyone to talk to. My best friend is really cool, but she's a girl and everyone thinks it's weird that we're best friends,"

 _"Why?"_ the snake asked _"I'm a girl too and no one thinkssss it'ssss weird when I try to talk to the boyssss and men who vissssit me. Of coursssse, no one undersssstandssss me. They jusssst think I'm a big sssscary ssssnake. It's nicccce to know that you understand me. I can hardly believe it!"_

I laughed a bit. "I can't believe you're speaking to me either. I think that you're actually a good listener," I said and the snake winked. I made up my mind that I was mad, but thought I'd talk with it some more. Just as I was about to open my mouth, Mel appeared out of nowhere and grabbed my arm. I turned around to face her and she looked worried. The other kids were also looking at me as if I was some kind of alien.

"Come on Danny, let's get out of here," Mel said and pulled me out of the Reptile House. I thought I saw the snake waving goodbye with its tail to me.

On the bus ride back, some kids decided it was funny to hiss and then laugh when they saw me but I ignored them. I wanted to sit with Mel, but she took another seat way behind mine. I decided to talk to her when we got back, maybe at dinner. Once we arrived, I went to my room and my roommates started hissing to each other like they were communicating. I silently cursed them and looked for some clothes so I could take a shower and change before I went to dinner.

The guys ended up telling me I should wear a 'ssssweater and a pair of jeanssss' and then go down to 'ssssupper' after my 'sssshower'. I through a pillow at Greg's face and then took my clothes and went to the bathroom. Luckily, this time they didn't hide them or take my towel. I was in a very bad mood however, when I went down for dinner and I had no idea why. I was also pretty sure that this meant that a rough school year was ahead and that I was very unlucky.

Mel, the only person I wanted to talk to at the moment had disappeared and didn't come to dinner. I thought she had gone the theatre club, but then realised that that wasn't their usual meeting hour. She was supposed to have missed it today because of the long trip. I thought she might show up and make up an excuse about washing her hair or trying to get mud off her sneakers, but she didn't. The whole time at dinner, I sat at the table alone, trying my best to ignore everyone else.

When I went to bed, I wished myself an early Happy Birthday, no one would remember it tomorrow now that Mel had vanished and no one had noticed it. I waited until everyone else was asleep so I could close my eyes, a lesson I'd learnt some time ago because I most certainly did _not_ want to wake up with pink fingernails again. I fell asleep certain that the next day was going to be perfectly normal. How wrong I had been!

 **OMG I am so excited you have reached this part of the chapter. That means that you've read it all. Tell me what you think in a review. It will mean the world to me.**


	2. Questions

**Here is the second chapter. I just wanted to say that I wrote this story before reading "The Cursed Child", which was great by the way, so it has nothing to do with it. Sorry. Also thank you the22nddoctor for taking the time to review.**

I was woken by someone shaking me. I opened my eyes having no idea what to expect. But what I saw was beyond any expectation. Mel was standing by my bed shaking me so I would wake up. The first thing that struck me was the stick she was holding. It looked like a stick but there was a light on its tip. It was glowing like a little light bulb was fastened on the edge.

The next thing that amazed me were the clothes she was wearing. She was wearing a white shirt, a black tie, a grey sweater, a black skirt, black stockings and black shoes. She looked like she was going to college or something, but something stood out. That something was a black thing that looked like a cloak which she was wearing over everything else. Also her hair was still the same colour as yesterday, a dark shade of purple. Since it was my birthday, she should have dyed it emerald green, but she might have forgotten, I thought.

"What time is it?" I asked her yawning.

"Six in the morning," she answered.

I opened my mouth to ask her what was going on, but she tossed me some clothes that looked like hers, only that there were pants instead of a skirt and stockings and different shoes. "Put these on, quickly," she said urgently "No time for questions!" I took the clothes and began changing out of my pyjamas and into the clothes she had given me while she started putting my things away into my trunk. I was facing some difficulties in tying my tie, but in the end I managed to do it.

"Take your trunk and the stuffed owl I gave you, follow me and be quiet!" Mel said. She sounded so urgent that I was beginning to feel like something was wrong. I put the owl in my trunk (without knowing why), took hold of the trunk and then noticed hers which was near the entrance to my room. Mel grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the room, taking her trunk with her and holding the stick in the hand that was holding mine. We ran down the stairs of the orphanage as quietly as we could, dragging our trunks behind us.

I expected that Mel had decided that we should run away and was leading me to the main entrance. But she didn't. We went to the living room and she stood in front of the fireplace. She let go of my hand, whispered "Nox" to the stick, and the light disappeared. She then put her hand in her pocket and pulled out some weird dust. She threw the dust into the fireplace and it turned into green flames. Then she pushed me and my trunk towards the fireplace. "What are you doing?" I asked her shocked.

Instead of an answer, she grabbed my arm again and said "The Leaky Cauldron" before stepping into the flames.

Suddenly, we weren't in the orphanage's living room any more but in a room completely unknown to me. I didn't have time to look around though, because Mel pulled me out and we ran out of a back door. A brick wall was in front of us, but when Mel tapped some bricks with the stick, the wall split open to reveal a strange street. It was full of shops, but shops that looked very weird, almost as if this was another world. I forgot that Mel had told me not to ask any questions yet and asked her where we were. To my amazement, she _did_ answer and said that were in Diagon Alley.

I had no idea what that was, but didn't ask anything else because when I opened my mouth to do so, she gave me a death glare. I wanted to look around because this Diagon Alley place looked really cool, but Mel pulled my hand, again, and we left the spot where we were standing. We went down Diagon Alley and reached another strange looking shop with a sign that said 'Ollivander's Makers of Fine Wands Since 382 B.C.' Makers of Fine Wands? What was going on in the world?

We entered the shop and it was pretty dark in there. Of course, the light of day had only just appeared, but don't shops usually have lights? "Mr. Ollivander!" Mel called out to someone once we were inside. A very old looking man appeared and smiled at her. "Miss Andrews," he said "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit? I sold you a wand a few days ago, and a very good one too. 11" vine wood with a phoenix feather, if I remember correctly,"

"You remember well Mr. Ollivander," Mel said and smiled at him "I'm not here to buy a wand for myself though. My friend Danny Odny needs one for Hogwarts," she said. Why on earth would I need a wand, which doesn't even exist, and what the hell was Hogwarts? Witches and wizards had wands in fairy tales, but they're fairy tales, they don't exist! What wands were Mel and Ollivander talking about?

"Of course," Ollivander said. He took out what looked like a tape measure and started measuring my arms and not only. Finally, he stopped and said "I will bring a few and be with you in a moment." With that he disappeared back to where he'd come from. He returned holding some sticks, which looked quite much like the one Mel had. He gave me one and told me to give it a flick. I did as I was told and immediately, a shower of sparks flew out from the tip. Mel and I ducked to make sure they didn't hit us. "Perhaps not this one." Ollivander said and took the stick away. I was still recovering from the first shock when he gave me another one and told me the same thing.

I flicked about ten of those sticks, which I guessed were wands, and every time caused some disaster. When I flicked the fourth one, it knocked down two vases, the sixth one nearly burnt down Ollivander's desk, the seventh one disordered everything that was on it and the tenth one could have burnt Mel's hair, which would have made her want to kill me had it happened. Ollivander seemed frustrated after the tenth one. "I don't understand," he said "It's never taken any wizard so long to find a wand and if he's just like any other…"

He stopped in the middle of the sentence and turned to Mel. "May I speak to you in private Miss Andrews?" he said. Mel nodded and they went into the room where he kept the wands. I knew I shouldn't, but I was sure they were going to say something about me and that made me want to know what, so I secretly followed them. "…Dumbledore told me about the Odnies long ago. Are you sure it's safe?" I heard Ollivander say.

What was safe? Who was Dumbledore? And what did he know about me that I didn't? "Dumbledore is the one who wanted me to do this," Mel answered "And I will!" It surprised me how she said it with so much confidence and like she knew exactly what she was doing and no one would stop her. I knew she could be very stubborn, but now it felt like no one could change her mind. "Very well," Ollivander said and they turned towards the entrance. I left the spot where I had listened to their conversation and returned to where I had been before they left.

Ollivander was carrying a wand with him when they returned. "Try this one," he told me and gave it to me. I took it in my hand and instantly felt like it warmed my palm. I gave it a flick and sparks flew out of it. But unlike the first time, it was as if I controlled them. I played around with them for some seconds before they vanished.

"13" oak wood and a thestral tail hair. Very interesting…" Ollivander said as he went to his desk. "And why is it interesting?" I asked. I was sick of not having my questions answered and I couldn't help asking this one.

"I have not used a thestral hair before for a wand. I made this one a few weeks ago, because a friend brought the hair to me as a gift. Thestral tail hairs are not common wand cores and they say that they rarely choose any ordinary wizard. Usually, wizards whose wand has a core like yours, are ones who are important, who have something to prove," Ollivander said.

"So I have something to prove?" I asked him.

"I do not know Mr. Odny," he answered "But if you do, it must be important."

I wanted to ask more, but Mel interrupted our conversation. "How much is it?" she asked. Ollivander told her that it cost seven galleons? and she took seven golden coins out of her pocket and gave them to him. He took them and then Mel took my hand, which was beginning to irritate me, and pulled me out. "I don't have any more floo powder," she said "So we have to get to London on foot."

Why did we have to get to London? She'd taken me all the way to this unknown place and now announced to me that we had to go to London too? This was the weirdest birthday I'd ever had. Also, what's floo powder? Probably that dust she threw into the orphanage's fireplace. I had so many questions that needed answering, and quickly.

We started running. It was hard to run quickly while dragging my trunk behind me and trying not to collapse because I'd hardly slept the night before. I couldn't believe that Mel was taking me to London. I'd never been to London before. I'd heard about it many times and had wanted to know what it looked like, but I'd never had the chance to go.

I was trying to let my excitement take over my exhaustion, but honestly, it wasn't very easy. By that time I had completely forgotten the fact that it was my birthday that day and that school was supposed to start in a few hours. It wouldn't be good if I appeared in class an hour late. It would make a very bad first impression, and first impressions are important.

At some point I realised that we must have reached the city. It was pretty obvious because the scenery changed completely and I saw very tall buildings. Man, it was huge! I wanted to stop and look around now that the sun had risen, but Mel wouldn't let me, she kept tugging at my sleeve, urging me to go on.

We were both out of breath when we reached a station. A sign informed me that this was King's Cross station. Why were we going to the train station? I looked at the clock to see what time it was and it said 10.57. School had already started, but I had the feeling I wasn't going to go at all today. Mel led me to the barrier between platforms 9 and 10 and stopped running. For the first time in hours she talked to me and, while gasping for breath, said "Danny, I really need you to trust me know. Whatever happens, don't freak out!" She then started running towards the barrier. What was she doing? We were going to crash into it! I closed my eyes and waited for the crash to come, but it never did.

When I opened my eyes, we were in a totally different platform. It looked older than the other ones. The sign said that this was platform 9 ¾. I'd never heard of it before. A crowd of people seemed to be waving at something. Mel and I pushed through the crowd and then I saw a huge red train with the words Hogwarts Express written on the front of it.

We ran through the door, and just as we did the doors closed and the train began leaving the station.

 **As I've already said, review please!**


	3. Answers

**Chapter 3! Let's see what's going to happen on the train...**

Mel and I stayed in the corridor for a while to catch our breath. My trunk seemed to be moving around a lot for some reason, so I lifted the lid to see what was going on. As soon as the lid was up, a huge black owl, which looked just like my stuffed owl, flew out and landed on my shoulder. I gave Mel a quizzical look. In return she told me that everything would be explained in a few minutes. We walked down the corridor looking into the different compartments which were all occupied.

Mel kept looking inside them and then she stopped and knocked on the door of one. We waited a bit and then a boy who seemed to be about our age, maybe even a year older, wearing the same clothes we did, with only exception his yellow and black tie, and turquoise hair came out. "I was starting to think you had been run over by a hippogriff," he told Mel in a comical way. Mel squealed with excitement and hugged him. Then the three of us went into a compartment which was by chance empty.

Once we'd sat down Mel coughed a bit to get my attention. I'd been pretty occupied looking at the owl that was still perched on my shoulder. "Danny," she said "This is Teddy Lupin," she motioned to the boy with turquoise hair who waved at me. "Teddy," she told him "This is Danny Odny." He waved again but I wasn't in the mood to wave back. "I know you have many questions which need to be answered," Mel continued "But you will have to hear something first and then ask them. Probably some of them will already be answered by then."

"What you need to know is that your life isn't exactly what you thought it is," she started "Your parents died when you were two years old, that's true. But what you didn't know is that they were murdered by dark wizards. Yes, wizards. Both your parents were wizards, but we'll discuss that later. Your aunt is a Squib, which means that although her parents were wizards, she does not possess any magical powers. So, she didn't think she could raise a magical child and left you. I am not on her side, I still think what she did was unfair, but you have to know why she did it.

"You are a wizard, Danny. Just like your parents, just like all your family, just like me, just like my parents, just like Teddy, just like everyone on this train. Wizards tend to show signs of their magical abilities from a young age, mostly when they're angry or scared. That's why, in situations like that, I was there to prevent the magic from showing, as it would uncover the magic world, which should not happen.

"But I think I have to tell you who I am as well. My name is Melena Andrews, as you know, and I am eleven years old, like you. Before we were even born, one of the greatest wizards, Albus Dumbledore, knew about you. He knew that you would come and who you were. He also knew, don't ask me how, that your parents would die, so you needed protection. My parents owed him much, because during the second Wizarding War, he aided them very well. So he went to them and they swore to protect you in any way they could.

"When your aunt left you at the orphanage, my parents decided to do something, which I still can't believe that they did. They took me there as well, saying that my parents had died. We met and became friends, which was exactly what they wanted. We were meant to meet.

"Young wizards often show signs of accidental magic, which confirms that they aren't Squibs, more often when they are angry or scared and I was always with you at those times to make sure no Muggle, those who aren't magical, find out about us. But, remember that time a pot plant nearly fell on Jason's head? That wasn't an accident, Danny! _You_ caused it, but we could easily hide that.

"I visited my parents every day. That theatre club I went to isn't really a theatre club. It was created by my parents for the purpose of seeing me, but it soon developed into a wizards' get together place. That's where Teddy and I met. But he started school last year and couldn't come until summer, so I'm glad we're starting too now.

"Yesterday at the zoo, you proved that you possess a gift not many wizards have. You're a Parselmouth, you can talk to snakes. This almost confirms some thought we have about you, something Dumbledore didn't have time to tell us before he died. I went to my parents, they called an urgent meeting and we discussed everything. Everyone was furious you didn't know you were a wizard yet.

"I was supposed to tell you years ago, but I couldn't! Every time I thought you wouldn't want to be my friend anymore because I'd been hiding something like that from you. Of course, I _did_ try to bring the wizarding world closer to you. I gave you an owl which was enchanted to turn into a real owl at eleven o' clock on the day of your eleventh birthday, the day you would start Hogwarts. And those jellybeans are from our world as well. Everything I've ever got you is!

"I think this is everything I had to tell you. Please don't judge me by all this. I don't think nothing is worse than losing you as a friend, Danny. You've been my friend forever and I don't want to lose you now that we've been through so much together."

I honestly didn't know what to say. Here was my best friend telling me that my whole life was a lie that she herself had been a part of. I was beginning to wonder if she was really my friend. Maybe she wasn't, she was just playing along. I was just an all too ordinary boy who only just found out who he really was. She'd much rather have someone like Lupin for a best friend.

"Won't they go looking for us at the orphanage?" I asked. I wouldn't have really bothered to ask anything, but this question had been in my mind ever since we left.

"We made sure that they will forget our entire existence," she answered "We're never going back!"

I felt as though I'd just fallen out of a cloud and hit the ground hard. We were never going back? I understood that Mel had her parents and stuff, but I was really an orphan. I didn't have anywhere to go. What would I do now that I couldn't even go back to the only place that had taken me in? I felt anger boiling inside me. Mel had come up with this whole plan and hadn't even bothered to inform me.

As if she'd just remembered something, Mel put her hand and pulled out an envelope. "This arrived two months ago," she said and gave it to me. I opened it and read the letter.

 _Dear Mr. Odny,_

 _We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

 _Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Minerva McGonagall_

 _Headmistress_

So, I even got a letter saying that I was a wizard. And Mel had hidden that too. But that wasn't all. She was still hiding stuff from me, I could tell. There were still things I had to learn that she wasn't telling me. But why had she been pretending all these years? Why was the only person I thought understood me suddenly turning out to be a liar? Why was my whole life falling to pieces?

There was silence for a moment and then Lupin spoke. "I don't like your colour," he said gesturing towards Mel's hair "It's too dark."

Mel made a fake offended face "Excuse me," she said "I've never seen _you_ in any but turquoise!"

"I swear it was black this morning!" Lupin said "Gran didn't want us to attract too much attention and I wanted to match with Harry so I had it black until I was on the train. Seriously, though, why dark purple?"

Mel rolled her eyes and then screwed up her eyes in an expression as though she was trying to remember something, and her hair turned turquoise. I had to try really hard to not make my mouth fall open or my eyes pop out of my skull.

Mel opened her eyes and started laughing. Lupin playfully punched her on the shoulder. "Don't you dare," he told her "Turquoise is _my_ colour!" Mel screwed up her expression again and her hair turned orange. "There, happy?" she said and stuck her tongue out at Lupin.

They kept laughing and talking for quite a long time, until a boy wearing the same black and yellow tie as Lupin knocked on the door of our compartment and asked him to come with him. He then left and I couldn't help but feel relieved.

"I know you might not like him right now, but he's a great guy," Mel said when he was gone.

"You didn't tell me about your hair," I said coldly. Mel looked confused for a moment but then smiled.

"Oh yeah, I must have forgotten," she said "I'm a Metamorphmagus, I can change my appearance when I want to. When I was little and couldn't control it yet, they had to put a spell on me to make sure nothing happened during the day. In the end I liked that I could change my hair colour so I changed it every day. Teddy is one too."

I had to keep myself from snorting. Teddy, everything had to do with Lupin, Mel's _real_ best friend. I was so frustrated at everyone and everything and it made a really bad mood in addition to my lack of sleep. I decided I was too tired to think of anything right now, so I curled up on my seat, shut my eyes, and was asleep in seconds.

I had weird dreams when I slept. It started off with a snake. It twisted around and around until finally it stayed still. It formed the shape of an S. It remained still and then it started to change. First into a locket with the snake on it, then into a book with a leather black cover and the snake on it and lastly into a wand with the sign carved into it.

But then my dream changed and I had no time to wonder what the snake meant. I saw everything I remembered of my life. My parents leaving, my aunt leaving me at the orphanage, me and Mel hanging out, us playing games, Jason sticking my head in the toilet, Mel coming to my rescue, the visit to the zoo.

It wasn't the same though, something was different. The Mel in my dream seemed colder, more distant, as if she wasn't really there. Maybe she wasn't. She'd just admitted that we'd met because others had planned it anyway. Maybe my dream showed me what the real Mel was like.

I woke, yet again, to someone shaking me. It was Mel again. "What time is it?" I asked her.

"I don't know but we're almost there so I thought I should wake you," she answered. She sounded hurt. I sat up but she refused to look at me.

"Has anyone ever told you that you talk in your sleep?" she said.

Uh oh, I could sense where that was going. "No," I answered.

"Well, you do."

"What did I say?"

"That I was never really your friend because of this plan."

I knew it.

"You know Danny," she said "Just because we were meant to meet doesn't mean nothing was real." With that she simply opened the compartment door and left.

I looked at the door through which she'd vanished for a while and then turned to the window. My mouth fell open. The huge castle which we were approaching must be Hogwarts. It was enormous!

Soon, the train stopped. I guessed we had to get off it so I got up and headed to the door. Mel hadn't taken her trunk with her when she left the compartment so I left mine there as well. I followed some kids out of the train and tried looking for Mel.

I thought of my owl, but he had sat perched on a rail while I slept and had vanished somewhere now that we were still. I didn't look for him, he must know what he was doing.

I gave up, there were too many people. I loud booming voice was calling "Firs' years this way. Firs' years this way." I guessed I must be a first year so I followed the voice and soon found that it belonged to a huge man. And when I say huge, I mean _huge_! He could have easily been six feet tall.

He was holding a lantern and gesturing to all the first years to follow him. When we stopped, we were by a lake and there were many boats. So we were going to ride the boats to get to Hogwarts. Why? The rest of the students didn't come this way. The giant told us that there should be four students per boat.

I hopped on a boat with two more boys and a girl. One of the boys was obviously shorter than the other and had black hair, while the other had curly mousy brown hair which reached his shoulders. The girl looked a lot like him, she had the same hair, even the same length, and the same nose and mouth. The only difference were their eyes, the boy's were something in between green and blue and the girl's were brown.

"All aboard?" the giant asked. As soon as the reply "Yes." came, the boats started moving, taking us closer and closer to Hogwarts.

"I'm George," the boy with black hair said.

"I'm Danny,." I said.

"I'm Anemone and this is my twin brother Felix," said the girl.

Twins. Well, that explains everything.

"Which House do you want to be in?" George asked.

"Dunno," Anemone said "I mean, most of my family have been in Ravenclaw and I'd love to be there too."

"I don't care," Felix said "As long as I get to be with Annie. No one has ever separated us and I won't allow some hat to do it. What about you?"

"Well, Hufflepuff's the easy choice and I guess I fit the description," George said.

What on Earth are Houses? And what about hats? I had no idea how to answer a question like that. Maybe they'd forget me I won't have to answer.

"What about you, Danny?" asked Felix.

"No idea," I answered. At least it was close to the truth.

We didn't talk for the rest of the ride. When we finally reached the shore, we hopped off the boats and followed the giant to the front gates. There, an old lady wearing green robes was waiting. "Thank you, Hagrid," she said. The giant, Hagrid, left us and we followed the lady, who introduced herself as Professor McGonagall up a staircase.

We waited outside for no apparent reason until she came back and told us to go inside.

 **Let me know if you like the story and want to read the next chapter! See you next week :))**


	4. The Sorting

**As always, updating on a Sunday I give you the next chapter of Heir Of Slytherin! Thank you for your reviews DSCWin and Alicia Olivia Mirza.**

Once we stepped through the doors, we found ourselves in a big room. There were four tables in that room, where the students who were older than us were sitting. In front of all those tables was an even bigger one where some adults were sitting, the professors. But the most fascinating thing in that room was the ceiling, it looked exactly like the sky outside.

Professor McGonagall was now bringing a stool and an old pointed hat into the room. She set them down and then the hat actually started singing.

 _Hello young wizards and witches_

 _I am the Sorting Hat_

 _Come here let's have a little chat_

 _So I can sort you in your Houses_

 _If brave you are and daring_

 _You'll be in Gryffindor_

 _If not you could be cunning_

 _And go to Slytherin_

 _But why not in Hufflepuff_

 _Home of all the loyal_

 _Or if to learn you would do all_

 _I'll put you in Ravenclaw_

 _Now come don't be shy_

 _And place me on your head_

 _For by doing that you may find_

 _Your new best friend_

 _But that my friends does not mean_

 _That only from one House you can have friends_

 _For even this school's founders_

 _Were different indeed_

 _But where there ever greater friends_

 _Than the four of them?_

When the hat was done, everyone applauded. McGonagall then pulled out a roll of parchment. "When I call your name, you will step forth, put the Sorting Hat on your head and you will be sorted into your House."

She unrolled the parchment and read.

"Abner, George."

George, who had been on my boat gulped and stepped up to the stool. He sat down and put the Hat on his head. Not long after he put it on, the Hat announced "HUFFLEPUFF!"

The Hufflepuff students applauded and I saw Lupin amongst them. George took the Hat off and sat down at their table.

"Anderson, Max."

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Andrews, Melena."

I tried my best to see exactly what was going to happen now. Mel sat down on the stool and put on the Hat. It hadn't been on for long when it said "GRYFFINDOR!"

Mel took the Hat off excitedly and her hair turned red with some golden streaks. The Gryffindors welcomed her happily to their table.

"Armstrong, Phillip."

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Bayleaf, Amy."

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Boxer, Jessica."

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Bumis, Lyra."

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Candon, James."

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Cobsworth, Ophiuchus."

"RAVENCLAW!"

After a while I stopped paying attention. I did notice though that Anemone and Felix were indeed both placed in Ravenclaw. The people around me kept getting lesser and lesser until I finally heard "Odny, Daniel."

I walked up to the stool and put on the Sorting Hat. I almost jumped when it started talking, I hadn't heard it talking to everyone else.

" _Well, well. What have we here? Not a Hufflepuff, I don't think so. What about Ravenclaw? You like learning new things. Oh, but some new thing you learnt cost you someone important."_

How did it know that?

" _I know everything right now."_

That was creepy!

" _That's what everyone says. Now, where were we? Ah, yes. Maybe not a Ravenclaw either. So, Gryffindor or Slytherin? I see great bravery in you. Maybe you'd do well in…_

 _Wait! No. There's something else. Ambition. You wish to prove yourself."_

Hey, I was just thinking how I wanted to get my wand and teach those idiots at the orphanage a lesson. I wanted to prove that I'm not weak.

" _A lot of determination too. I've made a decision. You'd best be in_ SLYTHERIN!"

Finally, that was over. It felt like a century since I put on the Hat. I took it off, put it on the stool and made my way to the Slytherin table. So, the bad thing was I didn't know anyone from Slytherin, but the good thing is that I didn't end up in the same House as Mel.

Opposite me sat a girl with the straightest and blondest hair I'd ever seen. Her hair was tied up in a high ponytail with only one strand of hair, a bit like a fringe but not exactly like it, hung down by the left side of her face. Her eyes were an icy blue.

It was a few seconds after I sat down that she introduced herself, almost like she wanted to see if she approved of me. "I'm Janet Morcroff," she said.

"Danny Odny," I introduced myself in return.

We didn't talk again until the Sorting was over with Diana Zine being sorted into Ravenclaw. "So," Janet said "Do you come from a pureblood family? My family is all wizards and has been like that for centuries."

If she hadn't said that last bit I would have had no idea what to answer. "Yeah, I guess we're all wizards. My parents were, but I never really knew them. I mean, I remember what they looked like and their voice, but they died when I was two years old and my only family left, my aunt, left me outside an orphanage."

Honestly, I'd never told someone I'd just met so much information about me. Janet was the first person I met in Slytherin, what if she thought I was weak and pathetic because of what my aunt did, like everyone else? So, why had I said it?

"That was an awful thing to do," she said.

I was about to change the subject when McGonagall rose from her seat. "First of all," she said "Let's begin the year by singing the Hogwarts march. Everyone, pick a pace and sing."

She waved her wand and a scroll appeared. Everyone got up and started singing. It sounded like a mess. Most of the Slytherins didn't, but Janet did and so did some other boys so I thought why not. I could hear Mel singing enthusiastically at the top of her voice. Lupin was also singing excitedly, arms draped around another boy's shoulders and a dark haired girl.

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, hoggy warty Hogwarts,

Teach us something please,

Whether we be old and bald,

Or young with scabby knees,

Our heads could do with filling,

With some interesting stuff,

For now they're bare and full of air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff,

So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we've forgot,

Just do your best, we'll do the rest,

And learn until our brains all rot."

When the signing was over, the students who had sung began clapping enthusiastically.

"I have some announcements to make," McGonagall said after the clapping stopped. Janet rolled her eyes, as if she already knew what McGonagall was going to say.

"The Forbidden Forest is, exactly as its name says, forbidden to all students."

"Supposedly," Janet interrupted as McGonagall continued. "Many students have gone into the Forest and out again. We should go and explore sometime." Did she really say 'we'? So she didn't think I was weak or pathetic, she actually wanted to hang out with me.

McGonagall kept talking about what we're allowed and not allowed to do. It got boring, too many rules. By the end I wanted to go to bed straight away. Finally, she stopped and sat back down. Then, magically, food appeared on the tables.

All thoughts of sleep left me and I got very hungry. Some other boys were already stuffing their mouths with chicken. I served myself and started eating. The food was amazing! Dessert was also great. When the Feast was over, the Prefects led us to our dormitories. The Slytherin ones were in the dungeons, underground, pretty cool.

"Gillyweed," the Prefect who introduced herself as Prefect Webber said when we reached a stone wall. When she said it, the wall slid open revealing the Slytherin common room.

It was very cosy in there and I would have paid more attention if I hadn't suddenly gotten tired again. Prefect Webber showed us where the boys' and girls' dormitories were. She wished us goodnight and we headed to bed.

We were four boys in my dorm. Me, one who introduced himself as Danus, and gave us a warning to never call him Eridanus which, apparently, was his full name, Marius and a boy named James, whose name I only knew because he'd been one of the first ones to be sorted, when I was paying attention.

I said I only knew his name because of that because the moment we stepped into the dorm, James opened his trunk, pulled out a pair of pyjamas, climbed into his bed and pulled the drapes around himself. Obviously he was shy, but he seemed to fit every House's description _but_ Slytherin's.

Danus suggested that he might be from some stereotype family where they'd all been in Slytherin and that's why he was here as well. I agreed, even though I didn't really get everything he said. I made a mental note to research wizards because all my dorm mates did except me, which was pretty embarrassing, considering I came from wizard parents.

We spent about ten minutes getting to know each other. Those ten minutes ended in something so funny we burst out laughing. What made it even funnier was that after a few seconds we'd forgotten what had made us laugh in the first place.

We were forced to stop and go to bed when an angry Prefect Smith barged into the dorm and forced us into bed while going on about keeping the entire House awake and that he'd report us to Professor Snape and Professor Slughorn if we don't hurry up. When I _did_ get in bed I fell asleep the moment my head touched the pillow.

I was exhausted and luckily I didn't have any weird dreams that night. Well, none if you don't count that dream about telling everyone in Slytherin house I had a nose and them finding it fascinating.

 **I worked my butt off trying to write that Sorting Hat song so please give me some credit by writing a wittle weview. Pweeeease! *puppy face***


	5. Spying

**Next chapter is here! Are you excited? I am :) Thanks DSCWin for reviewing my last one.**

The next morning I felt amazing when I woke up. My bed was so much more soft and comfortable than my bed at the orphanage and I had had the best sleep of my life. I felt bad to have to wake up and I wouldn't have, but I heard Danus and Marius plotting to pour a bucket of freezing water on my head. "I'm up. I'm up," I announced.

We got dressed. To my surprise, I found a green and silver tie by my bed and that my cloak now had the Slytherin badge on it. We got dressed and only then did I remember James existed, because he was the first to leave the dorm. Danus, Marius and I exchanged a look and I shrugged my shoulders. If he was going to share a dorm with us, he should start talking or we might step on him one day.

"What in Merlin's name are those?!" Marius exclaimed when he saw my worn out pyjamas.

"They're supposed to be pyjamas," I answered.

I hadn't told them I was raised in an orphanage and I wasn't really looking forward to telling them. From what I'd gathered most pureblood wizards, like myself, had grown up in some big manor or something. It was kind of embarrassing. I'd already told them about my dead parents, but it was as far as it was going to get.

We went to breakfast and I saw Janet there. I swear, her hair looked exactly the same as it had yesterday. She had either not washed her hair last night or spent hours in front of a mirror. Considering her look, my money was on the latter. I had to admit that green and silver looked great on her. "Good morning," I said to her.

"Morning," she answered.

We sat down and got some breakfast. There was so much food in this place! I felt like eating everything, but that would give me a stomache ache so I avoided it as much as possible. A plump professor handed us each a timetable while we were eating.

"Ugh," Janet exclaimed after reading it "Our first lesson is Charms with the Gryffindors."

Gryffindors. Mel was in Gryffindor. And thinking of Mel, she had all my books. I had to go get them. I excused myself and went over to the Gryffindor table. Today, Mel's hair was royal blue. She was eating but not talking to anyone else. Too bad Lupin wasn't there to keep her company. I walked up to her and tapped her shoulder. She turned around.

"Hey," she said to me.

"You have my books," I said "I need them."

"Oh, right," she said and reached under the table to grab a bag and give it to me. "You'll find they're all in there," she said.

"Thanks," I thanked her and left.

The bag was heavy. When she said all, she had really meant _all_. I went back to the Slytherin table and to my spot next to Janet. "Why were you at the Gryffindor table?" she asked me once I sat down.

"Nothing important," I answered and dug back into my pancakes.

When breakfast was finished, we went to Charms class. I was afraid we would get lost in such big a castle, but luckily Janet knew where she was going. "My father brought me here a couple of times," she explained. Her father had some high position in the Ministry of Magic.

A short professor taught Charms, professor Flitwick. He was so short he had to stand on books. We didn't do much in his lesson, we only practiced a wand movement he called the swish and flick.

Next, we had Transfiguration, again with Gryffindor.

The Transfiguration professor was the headmistress, professor McGonagall. "I'm not going to lie to you," she told us "Transfiguration is one of the most difficult subjects you will encounter during your school years. You will need to concentrate hard and study so that, when the time comes, you will be able to do something like this." With that, she took out her wand, pointed it at her desk and turned it into a peacock and back again.

Of course, we weren't going to start with something that complicated. She gave us a match and we had to turn it into a needle. Even that was complex. I didn't manage anything, but a boy from Slytherin did. We were all glad about that, we showed the Gryffindors we were better than them. Slytherin and Gryffindor had this rivalry. I didn't know how but I got swept in it since my first day.

Finally, after many hours, classes were over and we went for lunch. I was starving and could believe the amount of homework we'd been given, even though it was the first day.

"Do you want to explore the Forbidden Forest?" Janet asked me after lunch as we headed back to the common room. The truth was that I'd been looking forward to her asking me this ever since last night, but I had different plans.

"Nah," I answered "I forgot something in the History of Magic classroom so I have to go and get it."

"Oh," she sounded disappointed "Okay, then. I'll ask Zaria to come with me."

I was sad I had to miss on such an outing, but I guess she could ask me again someday. I left my bag in my dorm. James was there, the only one there, sitting on his bed and reading a book. I didn't talk to him, he actually sort of ignored me.

I left the Slytherin common room and headed down the corridors. I then went outside, I knew Mel loved being outside, she could be nowhere else. How right I was. There she was, talking to Lupin as they walked towards an old hut.

I waited until they wouldn't see me and then followed them. I couldn't help but miss the look of sadness on Mel's face, I wondered why she was sad. They got to the hut and knocked on the door. The giant who had brought us to the castle in the boats, Hagrid, opened it.

"Mel, Teddy," I was close enough to hear him greet them "So good ter see ya. Come in. Come in."

They went inside and the door closed. I ran and positioned myself under an open window so I could hear what was going on inside. I heard Hagrid pour tea for them.

"So 'ow's being back ter school, Teddy?" I heard him ask.

"Great," Lupin answered "I mean, I miss gran and Uncle Harry, but it's nice to be back. Last night, I, Liam, Rey and Charlotte couldn't stop talking about the holidays. We stayed in the common room until midnight, but then we couldn't keep talking because Rey and Charlotte had to go to the girls' dormitory. We continued this morning and professor Feinard got so irritated he almost gave us detention."

"Well, tha won' do," Hagrid answered, laughing softly "It's only the first day, you'd better stay out of trouble. I don't think ye've forgotten last year."

"How could I forget it?" Lupin said "I thought Rey was never going to talk to me again after that."

"An' wha' about you, Mel?" he asked and I stood on my tiptoes so I could hear better "I hear ye were sorted in Gryffindor. How is it goin' there?"

"It's fine," Mel answered softly and I heard her sip her tea.

"Why the long face?" Hagrid asked her.

"Melena is just upset because _someone_ isn't talking to her," Lupin answered and I had the feeling that someone was me.

"If he doesn't care abou' ye Mel, 'e's not worth it," Hagrid said.

"It's not that," Mel said "It's just… We've been friends forever and he just doesn't understand that I _do_ care about him. I thought he would take it well, but he's not. And now he won't even talk to me. I bet he hates me."

Well, hate was a strong word, but I didn't like her.

"He's just another bloody Slytherin," Lupin said.

"Language, Teddy," the giant scolded him "Don't pick it up from yer Uncle Ron."

"He's not like the rest of them," Mel said, bringing me up again.

"He is _way too much_ like them," Lupin told her "And he's gonna be worse, if you ask me."

"He's not!" Mel insisted and I wondered what was so wrong about Slytherin "We could still be friends if he talked to me."

"Mel," Hagrid told her "I don't wish ter discourage you, but I've seen a Gryffindor an' a Slytherin try to be friends before an' it's never worked. Take Lily Evans and Severus Snape, for example. Ye know where tha' went. I wouldn't like ter see anyone hurt yer feelings tha' way."

I'd heard enough. I didn't like them talking about me this way. Angry and frustrated, I made my way back to the castle and to the common room. I almost yelled the password to the wall. I stormed inside and almost walked into a couch.

I went into the dorm, slamming the door shut behind me. I heard a soft whimper and saw James still sitting on his bed and white as a sheet. He had dropped his book on the floor when the door had been slammed shut. My anger soothed a bit. I hadn't meant to scare anyone, I had just allowed my anger to take over me.

Not feeling like doing any talking, I took my bag and left the dorm as he leaned down to pick up the book. I sat down on a couch next to Danus and some other boy he was talking to. I pulled out a piece of parchment, my quill and ink and started my Transfiguration essay.

"Oh, hey, Danny," Danus said "I didn't notice you were here."

"I only just came," I answered.

"You're the one who stormed in here, right?" the other boy asked me.

"Yeah," I answered.

Danus introduced him as Dominic Novak. Apparently, they'd known each other for a couple of years before coming to Hogwarts because their dads were old childhood friends. We sort of copied his essay for History of Magic because he was the only one who had taken notes, the only one who hadn't fallen asleep.

The teacher, professor Binns was a ghost and so boring that everyone fell asleep. Dominic had stayed awake because his dorm mates had bet him that he couldn't.

Janet and Zaria came back from the Forbidden Forest before it got dark, to announce that it was amazing and make me wish I had gone with them. But Janet said that she was planning to go again, so I made a note to tell her to count me in when she did.

Before we were sent to bed, I had her explain the Heads of our House to me. So, we had two Heads of House, professor Slughorn and professor Snape. Professor Snape had died during the second Wizarding War, but remained in Hogwarts in portrait form. Because of what he did during the war, he is our Head of House. His job is to tell Slughorn what to do, even though sometimes Slughorn does whatever _he_ wants to do. You are never sent to the office to see Snape unless you do something very serious.

As I lay in my bed, I tried to gather everything I'd learnt this day. Mel wasn't as backstabbing as I'd thought, but even if I did want to talk to her again, there was no way Lupin would allow it. So, basically, the only thing between us would be Lupin. I fell soon fell asleep, all this playing in my head.

Our next day began with double Potions, which was taught by Slughorn. He began by reading the list of names. The first one he announced was George Abner, the Hufflepuff I'd met on the boat. George called out "Present."

"Anderson, Max?" he called out next.

"Present," the Ravenclaw answered.

"Andrews, Melena?"

"Present."

"Are you in any ways related to Bianca and Daren Andrews?" he asked her.

"They're my parents," she answered and I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes.

"Ah, yes. Wonderful. They are most excellent Aurors. Now, where was I? Armstrong, Phillip?"

"Present."

"Bayleaf, Amy?"

"Present."

"Heldon Bayleaf's girl?"

"No, sir."

"Pity. Boxer, Jessica?"

"Present."

"Bumis, Lyra?"

"Present."

"Candon, James?"

James simply raised his hand from where he was sitting.

"Not the son of Nero Candon!" Slughorn sounded the most excited he had since he started reading the catalogue.

James nodded shyly and he clapped his hands together. "Excellent!" he said and turned back to the roll of parchment he was holding.

After a long list of names, he called out Janet's. He asked her who her parents were and when she told him, he smiled at her and said that they were very talented wizards and that she should be very proud to have them as her parents. Then he went on.

"Oaen, Decimus?"

"Present."

"Odny, Daniel."

"Present," I answered.

Slughorn paused and looked at me and I felt uncomfortable. "Are your parents' names Silvia and Romanus Odny by any chance?"

I gulped. I didn't want this to be when everyone would find out that I was an orphan. I couldn't decide between telling the truth and lying. After some seconds of thought, I decided on the latter.

"Yes, sir," I answered.

However, unlike with most, he didn't comment any further. He simply nodded, coughed and turned back to his parchment. Janet looked at me with a quizzical look and I simply shrugged. I didn't know what this meant either.

On the first hour, Slughorn explained some basic stuff such as bezoars and aconite to us. The next hour, he explained the importance of different types of cauldrons and vials. I took as many notes as I could manage. I couldn't stop spying on a certain Gryffindor, however.

 **Well, you know the drill by now. REVIEW!**


	6. Halloween

**This is perfect timing. It's Halloween tomorrow! Are you excited? Sadly we don't celebrate Halloween where I live but a friend hosted a Halloween party which was awesome. As always, thanks for reviewing DSCWin. You rock :) Also I changed some thing from the previous chapter because apparently I can't remember what I write. Danus introduced Danny to Dominic and Dominic's last name is now Novak. Ugh, sorry.**

The weeks went by and I slowly got used to magic. It didn't take me long to wonder how Muggles lived without magic. My new friends from Slytherin were making everything much easier for me as well. Danus and Marius were really cool and fun to hang out with. Janet, being the only one who knew I was raised by Muggles, explained things to me.

I learnt a bunch of interesting stuff from her. One of the first things she talked to me about was blood status. In the magic world, there were purebloods, like us, half-bloods and mudbloods. Purebloods were wizards from families who have always been magical, which makes us better than the rest. Half-bloods have Muggle blood mixed with magic blood. Mudbloods were all Muggle but somehow possessed magic. Muggles ad mudbloods are the worst you can be, as your blood is dirty.

Next, there are the Houses. Purebloods and a few half-bloods go to Slytherin, the House of cunningness and ambition. As far as we're concerned, a mudblood has never made it to our House. The brawnies go to Gryffindor, like Mel. The nerds go to Ravenclaw and those who don't fit anywhere, the idiots, go to Hufflepuff.

The boy Danus introduced me to, Dominic, was also nice and so was Janet's friend Zaria. The only girl I'd ever hung out with was Mel, but Janet and Zaria were really cool. They had only just met this year, but they made a great team. Zaria was a little shorter than Janet and she had black shoulder length curls and big grey eyes. Despite being eleven, I could tell that both Danus and Marius were kind of into her. The two girls also happened to be the best pranksters I have ever met.

I'd never participated in a prank. That is, unless being the person the prank was pulled on counts. The kids at the orphanage had played dozens of pranks on me. Zaria and Janet would have given them a run for their money.

On the third day at Hogwarts, they managed to convince the house elves, the school's servants, to put a potion in the Hufflepuff's glasses of pumpkin juice which turned their skin green. The professors had a pretty hard time fixing that up. Of course, they got caught and had got detention, but I'm pretty sure it was worth it.

Then, last week, they put some kind of jinx on Danus' shoes, causing the laces to get undone all the time so he would trip on them. After a while he understood what was going on after he saw them laughing like mad. He didn't tell on them though, I think he actually kind of enjoyed it.

I hadn't participated in any of their pranks yet and I was feeling a bit left out. But that was before my first Halloween in my new school.

"What should we do for Halloween?" Janet asked me at dinner on the 21st of October.

I was surprised she had asked me and not Zaria. Nevertheless, I didn't mind, I'd been longing to play a prank for ages. I put down my knife and fork and thought about it.

"Isn't the school doing some kind of party?" I asked. I'd heard Mel tell Lupin that she was really looking forward to the Halloween party while I was spying on them.

Of course I hadn't stopped that. It wasn't because I missed Mel or was jealous of Lupin or something. I just wanted to know what she had in plan for me and why they kept talking about me. I'd heard my name or 'the Slytherin' being mentioned a couple of times, the latter mostly by Lupin. It made me wonder what was so important about me that was the cause of so much talk.

"Yeah," Zaria answered instead "But pranking the Halloween feast is cliché. We have to do something new."

"And you want me to be part of it?" I asked her.

"We wouldn't be asking you if we didn't," she said and Janet nodded.

I was so excited when she said that. "But we have to invite Danus, Marius and Dominic too," she added "It's only fair."

Okay, well maybe they didn't only want me, but for the first time in my life, I felt so wanted and in some ways popular. No one had ever requested my company before. Mel doesn't count. She always stuck to me anyway.

"We'll have to think of something really good to be remembered," Janet said and we started thinking.

After not having come up with anything during dinner, I moved the conversation to the dorm with Marius and Danus. We thought of some stuff, but it wasn't authentic enough to be remembered and the condition we had of accepting an idea was that it will be remembered as the best prank that ever happened to Hogwarts. I'm pretty sure that I fell asleep somewhere before the conversation came to an end.

Luckily the next day was a Saturday. That meant that we didn't have any classes and we could do whatever we wanted to do. We told Janet and Zaria our ideas at breakfast and they agreed that they wouldn't make it to the next years or decades or centuries.

The idea actually came to me in the way I least expected, a need to pee. I excused myself from the group, promising to meet them by the lake in a moment. I went to the bathroom and looked for an empty compartment. I have to admit that it was disappointing that magic couldn't create an empty one for you.

I found one and went inside. After I'd done my business, I went to wash my hands. As I turned around to go to the sinks, I bumped into someone. I looked up to apologise but almost screamed.

I found myself face to face with the closest thing we called zombies in the Muggle world. The boy was taller than me, his face white, a purple bruise around one of his eyes and his bottom lip was split. At the moment, I didn't think of anything else but zombies. Later, I would realise how stupid I was.

"Did I scare you?" he asked me and I noted that his voice sounded pretty normal.

"Yes," I answered, trying to get my breathing under control "But I'm fine now."

"Sorry," he apologised "Got into a fight. Had to run here so that McGonagall won't catch me. I honestly don't want detention."

I chuckled. "I'm Danny," I introduced myself "Danny Odny. Slytherin. First year."

"Pleased to meet you Danny Odny, Slytherin first year," he replied and winked "I'm Ed Boyd. Gryffindor. Third year."

Gryffindor. No matter he got into a fight, that's what they were like. But I realised that he had scared me and the idea came instantly. "I have to go," I told Ed, hurriedly washed my hands and ran outside to meet the group.

The lake was big and it took a while to locate them. It didn't take too long though. "We thought you'd drowned in the toilet seat," Dominic informed me. I poked my tongue out at him and then explained my idea. I didn't expect them to be impressed, but they loved it. Zaria even hugged me while jumping up and down with excitement. I almost stopped breathing by the force of her hug.

We quickly sat down and organised everything for Halloween night. It was going to be great. I couldn't wait!

* * *

The big night came. Everything was so well organised that it was going to give everyone, well, whoever went to the boys' bathroom, the scare of their lives.

The trickiest part of the whole thing was convincing Marius to be what we called the messenger. He was going to go and tell people that monsters are hidden in the bathroom and every two centuries, on Halloween, they come out to kidnap young wizards and take them to their nest, where they would stay forever.

What I'd learnt throughout my whole life, was that when someone heard of something deadly and dangerous, they would try to prove that it's true. That's exactly what we wanted. We wanted someone to come. We would give him a scare, he would run out screaming and then even more people would come in.

Marius announced that he was going to quit the prank, but the backstory had been his idea and it was only fair that he told it. The other parts were to be played by me, Danus, Dominic, Janet and Zaria. On Halloween night we didn't go to the feast. Marius was the only one who went and he gave us a look of pure hate as he left.

When he was gone, we had to get changed. Zaria had asked her parents to buy everything we needed for this prank and they agreed to do so. Especially when she told them what they were for. From what I'd gathered, her parents were really cool. The only two people who wouldn't wear a costume were Marius, of course, and Dominic. Unlike Marius, Dominic liked that he would be the one to bring chaos.

Quickly, we got changed and went to the bathroom. We sat down by the sinks and resumed the plan, just to be sure. Then, we told Marius that it was time for him to go. He got up and went to the door. He turned around and looked at us, a look of despair on his face. We waved goodbye at him, smiling, teasing him and he stuck his tongue out in return before leaving.

It was about ten minutes later that we heard footsteps approaching. Those ten minutes were the price we had to pay to play this prank. We had to be quiet in case Filch or Mrs Norris showed up and we didn't have any food. Needless to say, I was starving. I hoped Marius would pity us and bring us some food from the feast. The moment we heard someone coming, we rushed to our places, ready to begin.

"I don't believe him, Donald," I heard one voice say "It's crap. My dad was at school here and he never mentioned monsters."

"But what if it _is_ true?" the other replied "We have to see it, Fritz."

"Fritz?" Janet mouthed to me, while Zaria was trying to stop giggles from being heard. I turned to Dominic and he nodded.

Show time.

Dominic let out a scream so convincing, I almost jumped in fright. He ran out of his hiding spot. "The… the monsters," he exclaimed "They t… took Danny. We were o… only going t… to look. W… we thought it wasn't r… real!"

"Where are they now?" asked Fritz and I could hear panic in his voice.

"Down there," said Dominic. That was our cue.

Janet stepped out first. Our backstory for her, was that she had been from some kind of royal family, until she met this guy at a ball who kidnapped her and turned her into a monster. She was perfect for the part. She was wearing a long white dress with black lace. Her hair had been done by Zaria, who made it look great and then she made sure tufts stuck out and it looked like it hadn't been washed or brushed in centuries. To complete her look, we had cast a simple glamour charm on her face so that they wouldn't recognise her and so that it looked scratched and she had painted her hands with something that looked scarily enough like blood.

The boy named Donald screamed. I peeked out just to see what was going on. Janet was walking towards the three with slow, graceful and yet menacing steps. The boys were Hufflepuff second or third years and they had certainly peed their pants. Janet stopped in front of them. She smiled. "Well, well, well," she said, her voice sounding scratchy thanks to a spell Zaria's mum had told us about in her letter "I can't believe our luck. Four boys in one night."

Donald screamed again and ran out of the bathroom. No one tried to stop him. That was what he had to do, call everyone for help. Everything was going perfectly.

Danus grabbed my arm, it was nearly time for us to appear. Janet and Dominic were keeping Fritz busy until someone else came. It didn't take that long this time. In a matter of minutes, the bathroom was swarming with students. Janet stared at them, one by one. A Ravenclaw prefect was trying to get closer to her.

This had all been planned as well. If someone tried to hex her or something, Dominic was there with his wand to block it, make it look like someone else's powers. That was when the rest of us would appear.

Underneath her long black cape, Zaria wore a deep blue medieval looking dress. It was the most uncomfortable thing to wear from what I'd gathered, as she kept tripping over it the day her parents sent it and she tried it on. But with some practice, she was now perfect. She also had red cat eyes contact lenses one. When I told them what they were, Zaria begged her parents to buy some at a Muggle store. It was worth it. For finishing touches, she had the same paint as Janet all around her mouth, so it looked like she had been eating something alive, fake sharp teeth and a glamour on her face.

Danus supposed to be Zaria's husband, so he was dressed in almost the same. He had the same paint, eyes, teeth and cape. Under his cape he wore a deep blue button down shirt and matching trousers. In his trouser pocket, he kept a knife which had been painted with "blood". He also wore a glamour.

I was wearing what looked like my Slytherin robes, but they had been bought from Madam Malkin's so that we could tear them up and stuff. After tearing them, we put some "blood" and dirt on them. I wasn't wearing any glamours, as they were supposed to recognise me.

" _Stupefy!_ " the Ravenclaw prefect waved his wand, shooting the spell towards Janet. Dominic cast a shielding charm and it didn't hit her, she did however try to look even more angry and deadly. Everyone looked around, looking for whoever had stopped the spell, and then Zaria, Danus and me walked out.

Zaria walked ahead of us, Danus behind her. He was dragging me by my shirt collar and I did my best to look almost dead. I heard gasps from the crowd and some girl screamed. Zaria had her hand outstretched, as if she had just cast a spell. "You are disturbing us," she said in a loud voice "Why?"

"Don't worry, love," Danus said "Think of it as more dinner." She managed an evil smile and licked her lips. Even I was getting scared. Danus pulled his knife out and supposedly stabbed me. I fell down.

Zaria held up her hand again and Dominic, who had managed to get to the back of the crowd and nearest to the door, closed it. "Now," said Zaria "Let's eat." She knelt down by me, her back turned to the others, and pretended to eat me.

Someone called "Get a teacher!" I didn't worry, we had a backup plan. When the teachers came, we would run and hide in a toilet. Not the ideal place to be, mind you, but it was better than being caught.

But it seemed like we were having too much fun, because we didn't notice McGonagall, Slughorn and Kettleburry enter. Luckily, they didn't stun anyone, but McGonagall realised this was a trick. I could hear her come closer, my eyes were shut. Zaria, Danus and Janet stopped acting the moment they saw them, but I couldn't. "Mr. Odny get up, please," she ordered me. I opened my eyes, saw the stern look on her face and did so.

" _Finite Incantatem_ ," said McGonagall and Zaria's glamour faded. Danus' and Janet's followed. "Care to explain?" she asked us, arms folded over her chest.

"We thought we'd play a prank," said Danus "For Halloween."

"A prank does not include terrifying your fellow students," she said and I thought that maybe we _had_ gone a bit too far. "Twenty points from Slytherin," she continued "And you will all serve detention for two months."

"Oh, Minerva," said Kettleburry, the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor "You're being too hard. Let's say, five points for their creativity?"

"Six?" suggested Slughorn, he was our Head of House after all.

"Four points for the costumes," said McGonagall, but it was obvious she didn't really mean it. "To your common rooms," she told everyone else.

 **Leave me a nice review so I'll know you like this story. Also tell me what you're dressing up as for Halloween. I was the Hustler from "Escape The Night".**


	7. Caught

**Welcome back to my story! Thanks DSCWin and Guest for reviewing.**

It was a week after the Halloween prank. Marius and Dominic hadn't gotten in any trouble, which was kind of annoying, as they didn't stand up for us. Dominic _had_ participated in the prank, they just hadn't come in time to see him. We tried not talking to them the first two days, but we gave up. It wasn't really their fault, after all.

We all had to serve detention, but they split us up. McGonagall said that after Halloween, there was no way she was leaving us all together on our own. So Janet and Danus helped Madam Pince in the library, organising the books, Zaria helped Hagrid with some creatures he was looking after and I had to make potions for Madam Pomfrey with Slughorn.

It was a shame, we didn't get to see each other so much anymore, apart from classes. But I was also annoyed because this meant that I couldn't go spy on Mel and Lupin. I knew it was wrong and I shouldn't do it, but I needed to know why I was the topic of most of their discussions and what they were doing.

One day, as we were doing homework, Zaria stormed in. She shoved this guy who was sitting next to me out of his chair and sat down. She pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and pressed it against her right leg. She hissed as it made contact. "When we get to the end of second year," she said to me "Remind me to _not_ choose Care of Magical Creatures."

"Are you okay?" I asked, as I saw that her stocking was torn.

"No, my leg just got scratched and I'm saying I hate animals because I felt like it," she snapped.

I was taken aback, she wasn't usually like this. I went back to my Charms book, reading about the wand-lighting charm. Nearly everyone had managed it, but it just didn't work with me. I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry," said Zaria "I didn't mean to talk to you like that. I was just with Hagrid and this thing came up and scratched me and he didn't do anything. I left, but then this Mudblood appeared out of nowhere and knocked me down and it got worse. Merlin, I freaking hate them!"

"Which ones? Creatures or Mudbloods?" I asked.

"Both," she answered and pushed a strand of black hair out of her face.

"Why didn't go and see Madam Pomfrey," I asked.

"I don't know," she admitted, pressing the handkerchief harder on her leg "I was just pissed at that Mudblood and Hagrid that I didn't think of it."

"I'll come with you," I offered "I have some potions to give her and we need to catch up a bit, don't you think?"

"Yeah," she answered "That would be great."

I went to my dorm to get the potions. James was sitting on his bed, as always. Talking about people I don't see very often, I shared a dorm with him and I only knew his name. He didn't talk much, not even in class. But he was very good at this wizarding stuff. He was the first to muster the wand-lighting charm and had earned Slytherin ten points for doing so. Right now, he was reading _second year's_ Defence Against the Dark Arts book.

I didn't pay much attention, though. I opened my trunk and removed the box in which I kept the potions I made with Slughorn. I took it out, closed my trunk and left. I met Zaria in the common room and together we left for the Hospital Wing.

When we got there, there were a couple of other students, all had sustained some kind of injury. Madam Pomfrey was with a Gryffindor who'd ended up with antlers. She noticed us and said, "I'll be with you in a moment."

It did indeed take a moment. She cast a spell and the antlers vanished. "Try not to get in a fight again, Mr. Erchin," she told the Gryffindor as she showed him off. "Don't you worry Madam P," he said and winked before leaving.

"Now," she turned to us "What can I do for you?"

"This creature scratched me," said Zaria "It was a bowtruckle I think."

"That doesn't look very bad," she said, taking a look at her leg. She cast a quick spell on it and it looked good as new. Then she saw her torn stockings. "Would you like me to help you with those?" she offered, but Zaria shook her head and pulled out her wand. " _Reparo_ ," she said and it was back to normal again.

Madam Pomfrey turned to me. "And why are you here, Mr. Odny?" she asked me.

"I brought you some potions from Professor Slughorn," I explained, showing her the box "This one is a Pepperup Potion, this one is the Blood-Replenishing Potion, this one…"

"Miss Andrews," Madam Pomfrey called out and I stopped, I knew that name "I thought I told you that you were free to go."

I turned around, just to make sure. Yep, that was surely Mel. She got up from a bed she had been sitting on and left. I was pretty sure I saw someone with turquoise hair meeting her at the exit. I knew where they were now, I had to follow them.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying, dear?" Madam Pomfrey asked me, jerking me from my thoughts. I had to improvise. I dumped the box in her hands.

"I um…" I started "These are your potions. I have to go now. I just remembered that I have a two feet long essay for Herbology due to tomorrow that I'd totally forgotten about."

I ran out before she could ask me anything. Sure enough, my targets were still descending the staircase, so deep in talk that they didn't even realise I was there.

Following Lupin and Mel was the easy part, the hard part was doing it without being noticed. Sure, Mel and I had done it when we were younger, played spies and following around Jason and his friends, pretending they were the bad guys, but this was real. I don't know how I actually managed going from the Hospital Wing to the library without being noticed.

And they hardly even stayed in the library!

All this way and all this fatigue for nothing. They went in, searched for some book, found it in the next twenty seconds and left. I was almost caught at some point. Janet was there, serving her detention, and she saw me. "What are you…?" she asked me but Madam Pince came to my rescue, telling her to be quiet. I grabbed a book, making up a reason to be there, smiled at her and headed towards the exit. I had to borrow the book in order to get it out of the library, but that didn't take long.

As I was leaving, I decided to see what I had borrowed. I looked at the cover. The words 'History of Magical Sicknesses' were printed on it. I sighed, why hadn't I looked? Too late to go back now. I put it under my arm and continued on my mission.

To my amazement, they went outside and sat down on a bench. I couldn't help but notice that Mel wasn't looking great. I'd known her since I was two, I could tell when she was sad. It didn't matter that she tried to seem happy by morphing her hair bright pink, I knew something wasn't right. Lupin seemed to have noticed too.

"Mel," he told her "You need to stop trying to convince me you're fine."

"I am," she answered. She must be an idiot thinking she'll convince him with that tone.

"Why don't you just…" Lupin said.

"Tell him?" she cut him "Are you really stupid enough to propose that?"

Lupin looked offended. "I'm sorry," she said "I'm just not fine."

"Tell me," Lupin said, sounding an awful lot like I used to when I comforted her.

"It's just," she said "Danny hates me and now you're hanging out with me. It's not that I don't like you, but you said it yourself, you had an argument with Liam because you're spending more time with me than with him and he's your best friend. Teddy, your friends need you and I'm in your way. You should just leave me find a way on my own."

"Mel," he told her "You're like my little sister. I couldn't do that to you, you know it."

Mel didn't say anything at first, she simply looked at the ground. "You were saying the same thing about Charlotte this summer," she said "That she's like your sister. And about Rey."

"Rey and Charlotte don't know me as long as you do," Lupin tried to defend himself.

"But they're your best friends!" Mel insisted "You can't leave them, I don't care for who. Just, make up with Liam and I'll think of something. Please!"

It was Lupin's turn to say nothing. They appeared to be communicating with glances for a few moments, until Mel opened the book they'd borrowed and started reading. I didn't dare venture any closer to read what it was about. I just stood where I was and watched them for several minutes until something finally happened.

"It's too loud here," Mel stated "Let's go to my common room." Lupin nodded and got up. He took the book from her and then helped her up too. I groaned, he was playing gentleman. The slightest sound of a giggle escaped Mel. She led the way back inside. Luckily they didn't notice me. I decided I'd chosen a great hiding spot.

I counted to fifteen and followed them. They were halfway up a staircase when I found them. As discreetly as I could, I rushed to catch up a bit. Some students looked at me angrily as I pushed past them.

We went up more than one staircases. Mel and Lupin stopped in front of the portrait of a fat lady wearing a long pink dress. "Habberplabb," said Mel and the portrait swung open and let them enter. Once they were inside, I went up the rest of the stairs to follow them in, but the portrait slammed shut in my face.

"Password," said the fat lady.

I was going to tell her the password, I'd heard Mel say it after all, but she stopped me. "You're a Slytherin!" she exclaimed.

"Yes," I said. What was wrong with that?

"I'm not letting you in," she told me. Crap.

"But I know the password," I complained.

"And if you go in, you'll hex all the Gryffindors," she told me "Leave."

"No," I snapped. I'd been having a hard day, this stupid portrait wasn't going to get in my way! "Listen here," I continued, trying to calm my temper "The password is Habberplabb. Now, open that door or I'll…"

"Danny?"

Shit. The portrait had opened again and I hadn't noticed and guess who'd come out. Mel. The look on her face was that of betrayal. She burst into tears and went back in. Lupin stared at me as if saying "Now look at what you've done!"

 **Review. You make my day when you do. Don't you want me to be happy? :)))**


	8. Am I The Only One?

**READ!: In this chapter I mention that Danny's owl (you remember him, right?) is named after an angel. That is purely because of my addiction to Supernatural. This isn't turning into a religious-fic. Just in case you think it might be I wanted to say that it's not. I don't want to offend anyone.** **Things get serious in this chapter guys. I hope you'll like it. Huge shoutout to my trusty follower DSCWin who again reviewed my last chapter.**

I barely saw Mel any more. She was nowhere to be seen in the corridors and hardly came to meals. A few times I saw her, she was nudging Lupin towards three Hufflepuffs, two girls and one boy and always succeeded. But she always looked sad after she'd done so. I only saw her in classes, and that wasn't enough.

I didn't know if I should feel bad or satisfied. On one side, I hadn't done the right thing spying on her and that had obviously hurt her feelings. But on the other hand, Janet, Zaria, Marius, Danus and Dominic had been way better friends to me than she had. They had never hidden anything from me and they really helped me understand the wizarding world. Of course, Janet was still the only one who knew about me growing up in an orphanage and she hadn't told the rest of them, another reason I was grateful of our friendship.

So the days just kept going on, without Mel. However, I thought about her and sometimes memories of us would come to me. Not very recent ones, old ones, of when we were four or five. Like us playing on the swings or that time I had told her that I would marry her when I was older. She had asked me how old and I had said "Ten." Stupid answer, right? But I was four! That one still made me laugh sadly. How could I know that seven years later not only would we not be married, but we would also be as we are now?

In the end, maybe I _did_ miss her, but I kept trying to bury that feeling for my new friends and my new life. That's what I decided every night before I finally closed my eyes and rolled to my side from staring at the top of my bed's drapes.

But sleep didn't always come that easily. It wasn't the type where you turn around, it was the debates. I kept saying this, but until sleep took me my mind debated it and then I woke up in the morning, never remembering which side had won.

I never talked about this with anyone. Merlin, my friends didn't even know Mel existed in my world. They only knew her as Andrews from Gryffindor. And that was only because of the lessons. I doubted it was her hair, which had been the same shade of dirty blond. Literally dirty. It looked like she had been rolling in the mud with it. I would have told her if I talked to her, but I didn't, so I kept it to myself.

"Alright, speak up," Janet's whisper interrupted Monday's Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson "What's wrong?"

"What do you mean?" I whispered to her as I tried to take notes of what Kettleburry was saying at the same time.

"As if you don't know!" even whispering, she sounded irritated "Something's wrong with you. You look glum and depressed, like a hippogriff ran over your parents… I mean… Sorry."

"It's okay," I accepted her apology, it wasn't her fault "But I'm not glum or depressed."

"Do you want to tell me what's wrong?" she asked and I shook my head.

"It's nothing," I explained "I'll get over it."

"If you say so," she shrugged "But look at Andrews. _She_ looks like a hippogriff ran over her parents."

I didn't say anything.

So basically, that's what kept happening. Sometimes I _did_ feel bad, but it wasn't like the guilt was killing me. I could live like this. And then I told myself, "Well, it's not my fault. Mel and Lupin thought that they could go behind my back and they think they're so awesome for lying to me. I'm sure they're really happy and cool with their families and stuff."

Turns out it wasn't exactly as I thought.

* * *

One day, Lupin cornered me on my way to History of Magic. One moment I was walking with my friends and the next someone had grabbed my arm and was pulling me away from them. I saw Lupin and he was giving me the we-need-to-talk look. I excused myself from the group and went with him. Janet called out to me saying that she would tell Binns something came up if he noticed I wasn't there.

Lupin led me outside the Great Hall. We stood facing each other for a few seconds before he actually spoke to me. "I just want to tell you that what you did to Mel wasn't very nice," he said "You hurt her feelings and I just want to help her."

"If you think about it, what she did to me wasn't very nice either," I replied.

"What?" Lupin asked me "Being a good friend to you?"

I almost didn't have an answer to that, because I realised that Lupin had a point. Despite all the lies, Mel had been there for me all these years and had been the best friend I could have asked for. Had it not been for her, I would have probably been on my own for a long time.

"She lied to me," I said instead "She pretended to be someone she wasn't and she's been talking about me with you behind my back."

"You've been spying on us all this time?" he asked and it hit me that they didn't know I had been watching them for a while now. I could have lied, but how could I justify that I knew they were talking about me.

"Maybe I have," I told him "What is it to you? You've been saying all kind of stuff about me, it's almost like you know about me more than _I_ do."

Lupin remained quiet and it was all I needed. They _did_ know more things about me than I did! How dare they not tell me? I felt so angry. It was almost as if they were managing my life for me. I'd had enough of it.

"I'm sick of you two," I exclaimed "What have I ever done to you to make you ruin my life? You and Mel really feel so special being friends and having a family and your parents and all that when I don't. You saw those people I was with? _Those_ are the ones I'm proud to call my friends and, you know what, I only just met them some months ago. Do you want to know why? Because they never lied to me. Because they don't plot behind my back. Because they haven't rubbed the fact that I'm an orphan and they're not in my face. And that's exactly what you two are doing!"

I knew my words had stung the moment I saw Lupin wince. I don't know why they might have meant to him, but finally I'd told him. I hated this boy, I really did and right now I didn't mind him knowing. He'd taken my friend from me and now it was revealed that he had been learning about me from her, despite never having met me before. And not to mention he was a Hufflepuff, an idiot.

What I had just said hadn't gone very well with him, but I didn't care too much. It was probably because he had realised what a jerk he was. Now he knew that what he had been doing was wrong, which he mustn't have bothered to think about before. I was glad that I had been the one who had pointed his faults out to him.

He didn't say anything and I thought the conversation was over and we could go back to our classes. I smirked thinking that I'd won this debate and quickly tried to remember a hex to use on him. I couldn't recall any so I turned to leave. As I began walking away, he grabbed my shoulder. I turned around and saw that he hadn't moved anything but his arm and he was still. It seemed to me he looked a bit paler but it must have only been my imagination.

"We were only trying to help, mate," he said and his voice sounded softer but I ignored it.

"I'm not your mate, Lupin," I snapped, pushed his hand off my shoulder and left.

All the way to class 72 I couldn't stop thinking of how weird Lupin suddenly looked. Almost as if I had just triggered memories he wouldn't like to remember. But he had had an ideal life, what could he not like to remember? Maybe some time he just didn't get what he wanted, like he probably always did. I snorted just thinking of him and entered the classroom, taking my usual seat next to Janet.

Binns hadn't even noticed me come in. I pulled out my book, parchment and quill, even though I wasn't going to use them for anything. No one took notes in History of Magic, except James Candon for some strange reason, and right now Mel.

Janet was almost asleep and woke up from the sound of my book hitting the desk. I made a joke about her drooling and me almost slipping on her drool when I came in and she punched my arm. She then began drawing a unicorn on my parchment while I scribbled on her hand. When she was done I explained hangman to her and we started playing.

You could say it was a fun lesson, but I just couldn't stop wondering what the heck had happened to Lupin. Funny enough I didn't see him again the rest of the day. And then, later that day, something I didn't expect happened, Mel talked to me.

At lunch, I saw her walk over to the Hufflepuff table and talk to the boy and two girls I'd seen Lupin with the night of our Sorting. They were all Hufflepuffs, all three of them. One of the two girls had long dark, almost black hair and amber eyes. The other had shoulder length dirty blond hair and light brown eyes. The boy had light brown hair and green eyes.

Mel appeared to be asking them a question and one by one they shook their heads and said something I couldn't hear, once the Slytherin table was almost in the other end of the Great Hall. Mel nodded and then I thought I saw her coming towards our table, but she was most likely going to her own one. But when she passed it, it became certain that she was coming to ours and to my big surprise, she was facing me.

I put my fork down and waited for her to come. She stood behind Marius and Dominic, who were in a heated conversation about the Falmouth Falcons and the Tutshill Tornados. "Hi, Danny," she said to me with the smallest smile. Marius and Dominic turned around.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Dominic asked her.

"Just get to your point," I told her "You want to ask me something. Ask it."

"Oooooooh, Danny," said Danus "You didn't tell us about you and Andrews. Do you always have this horrible taste in women?"

If looks could kill, the one Mel shot him would have. Danus cleared his throat and returned to his plate muttering something about stupid Gryffindors. "Can we go somewhere a bit more private?" Mel asked me.

I would have rejected it, but she wasn't going to say anything if I didn't agree so I nodded. I got up and pushed past Marius who was sitting next to me. He saw me leaving and picked up Danus' joke saying, "Don't snog where the teachers will see you."

"If she tries snogging you turn her lips violet," said Zaria "It might make a small improvement to her face."

Mel seemed to ignore them and guided me outside the Great Hall. I was reminded of the day of my birthday, when she took my hand and led me all around London and I took my first glimpse of the wizarding world. She was leading me again, but this time she wasn't holding my hand.

"Just ask me what you want, already!" I urged her.

"Have you seen Teddy?" she asked.

My first thought was at least she did what I asked her to do. My second thoughts were _'Who is Teddy?'_ It took me a while to remember that that was Lupin's name. I decided not to tell her that we'd talked yesterday.

"No, why?" I said.

"I was looking for him and I can't find him," she explained "And Liam, Rey and Charlotte haven't seen him since Defence, and that was first period."

"What made you think I would have?" I asked and folded my arms over my chest.

"I don't know," she admitted. She looked up at me, blushed slightly, bit her bottom lip and ran off. Literally ran.

I went back to finish my lunch. When I sat down Marius asked me how it had gone with Andrews and I threw a forkful of rice in his direction. He cursed as it got messed up in his hair. Zaria laughed as she helped him get all the grains out. He almost hit me in the face with a slice of cake that had been desert, but I threatened to hit him with the bat-bogey hex if he tried it.

We finished lunch and decided to go to the common room and study. But Janet and Danus had their detention to serve and left to go to the library. On our way to the dungeons, a fourth year Ravenclaw caught up with us and told Zaria that Hagrid needed some help with the creatures. Zaria all but burst into tears at the thought of more injuries. That only left me, Marius and Dominic. But I thought I'd go to the owlery and check on Azriel, my owl.

Janet was actually the one who named him. Janet is an expert when it comes to names and knows the meaning of every single name. The moment she saw my owl she begged me to let her name him. She searched through a book of names she had, telling me that he needed the name of an angel. She picked Azriel because he was a black owl and Azriel was the angel of death and destruction. I found it weird that someone would name an owl after something so dark, but a minute later I understood that, weirdly enough, he looked like an Azriel.

On my way to the owlery, I was walking down a corridor and thought I heard a sound like crying. I looked around, but I was alone. Just me and a broom cupboard. And then I heard the sound again and realised that it was coming from the cupboard.

I took some steps towards it and knocked on the door. The crying sound stopped. "Is someone in there?" I asked, but I didn't get a reply. Instead, I heard what sounded like a hiccup, someone trying to hold back their crying so they won't be heard.

Despite common belief, Slytherins do have feelings and I was one of them. It hurt me to think that someone was hiding in this cupboard and in pain. I wanted to comfort them, but I could only do that if they let me in, which they weren't going to do willingly. I pulled the door open.

"Lupin?!" I exclaimed.

Teddy Lupin was sitting at the far end of the broom cupboard, knees pulled against his chest and hands lying in his lap. His eyes were filled with tears which were running down his face and his body was shaking with sobs. And suddenly, I wanted to comfort him, even though it was Lupin.

I got into the cupboard and shut the door. I sat beside him as he attempted to wipe the tears away with his sleeve. "What's wrong?" I asked him and I got a feeling that these were the consequences of my words.

"Nothing," he said.

"You're sitting in a broom cupboard looking like a mess and you want me to believe you?" I raised an eyebrow at him "Either you think I'm stupid or _you_ are."

He didn't say a word. He pulled his knees closer to himself and I almost didn't hear him when he said, "You're not the only one, you know."

I had no idea what he meant and I knew that I'd only find out if I asked him. So I did. "What do you mean?" I asked.

"You said that Mel and I 'feel so special being friends and having a family and our parents and all that when you don't', but you're not the only one!"

And it hit me. That's why my words had hurt Lupin. Now I felt guilt for hurting him like that. I of all people knew that I wasn't nice to remind one of this. "How old were you?" I asked.

"A month old," Lupin answered.

All these years I'd thought Mel was lucky because she didn't remember anything from her parents before they died while I did. And suddenly I realised that I had been wrong. _I_ had been lucky, because I had something. Lupin, he had nothing. Your parents are supposed to be the most important people, the ones who bring you to life. To lose them was one thing, but to never know them…

"Lup… Teddy," I decided I'd better call him by his name this time "I guess this is where I have to say, it's alright and that kind of crap, but I know that it's not. Maybe I can't even understand you, because I remember my parents. And I know everyone says 'at least you have your friends', but I know that sometimes that's not enough. But for now, just think of Mel, your Hufflepuff friends, maybe me if you want to, the family you _do_ have. I think that they wouldn't like to see me like this, so I put on a smile and act normal. My insides scream that what I'm showing them isn't true, but I owe it to them for being there for me. It's the worst advice you can get, but it's all I've known all my life."

"What is it like?" L… Teddy asked me "Having parents?"

"Truthfully, I don't remember much," I admitted "But from what I do remember, it's great. I keep thinking _'Why should it be me? Why should_ I _lose them?'_ I don't think there's an answer, it just happened. For mine, it was wrong place wrong time I suppose."

"We both lost them to Death Eaters," Teddy said.

"I'm sorry I said that to you," I said and I actually meant it.

"You didn't know," he said "But to be honest, it was kind of mean."

"I guess I was so angry I didn't even think," I admitted "I should have at least paid attention to what I was saying."

"Will you talk to Mel?" Teddy changed the subject.

I considered this for a moment and answered, "I don't know. It's a different story."

"At least try to forgive her," he insisted "She was only thinking about the best for you."

I put all my Slytherin pride aside and thought about this too. "Maybe you're right," I said and Teddy wiped his eyes and smiled. We got up and left the broom cupboard.

 **So what do you think? Teddy and Danny made up but will he go talk to Mel? Will _they_ become friends again? You'll have to wait for the next chapter to find out. If you don't review, I won't update...**


	9. The Truth

**Oh my gosh! I'm so excited to post this chapter. It's here guys, brace yourselves. Thanks for reviewing DSCWin, as always.**

Teddy had insisted I talk to Mel and I really didn't want to disappoint him. After out talk in the broom cupboard, I started to feel sympathetic towards him. I wasn't saying that I liked him now or that I wanted to be his friend, but I could understand him. So I made up my mind that I should talk to my former best friend.

It was clear in both of our minds that our relationship had changed. We were barely even friends anymore. My friends were Janet, Danus, Marius, Zaria and Dominic. My best friend was Janet. Again, my best friend was a girl, but it wasn't my fault. Janet could easily reach Mel's coolness level. The thing was that Mel was in neither of these two categories.

But as I mentioned, Teddy had insisted I talk to her and I didn't feel like letting anyone down. I made up my mind to talk to the Gryffindor girl, but I didn't tell any of my friends. I remembered the way they'd reacted when she had come to talk to me that day. Not good. That meant I would have to keep it all a secret.

I decided to do it one Wednesday after Potions. It was out first class of the day, but my friends knew that I hated Slughorn and that I always took a minute on my own after about each class. Ever since that first lesson when he asked me if my parents were Silvia and Romanus Odny, he keeps looking at me like I'm some bomb that might explode. But at the same time he praises me all the time. It's just creepy! So luckily we have Herbology after that, and Longbottom is sympathetic enough to allow us to 'be lost' for five minutes.

So that particular Wednesday, I intended to 'get lost' with Mel. Janet and the rest of them promised to meet me at Herbology and I waited for her to leave the classroom. When she did, I pulled her aside. She jumped in fright. "We need to talk," I said. My tone was harsher than I had intended it to be. She nodded.

We walked over to the entrance, from where we could easily get to Herbology when we were done talking. Mel put her books into her bag on the way. She slung it over her shoulder and then put a strand of teal hair behind her ear. I thought we should better get done with this.

"I talked to Teddy," I started the conversation.

"Oh," Mel said "What did you talk about?"

"Something," I said, desperate to talk about what we were supposed to discuss "That's not what I want to tell you."

"Okay," she told me.

"Listen," I started, knowing that we didn't have all the time in the world and had to speed this up "I don't mean that I forgive you for everything, but I think we should talk about all this. Maybe I should ask for your side of the story and tell me why you did everything. I think that it would be best if I heard it from you too, instead of blaming you straight away. I've known you forever and I think that we should at least try to fix this mess."

"I know," she answered and looked down at her shoes "I just don't know what you don't understand. My motives were all for you. I did this because I thought it would help you. So, meet me and Teddy at the library after lunch. I'll get a hold of him until then. I swear we'll tell you everything."

We agreed to do that and then went to Herbology. Longbottom said that there was no way we were lost for so long and took five points from each of our houses. But then he smiled and told us not to do this again. I couldn't make up my mind whether or not I liked Longbottom. I know Janet and Dominic certainly didn't, but he seemed sweet to me.

We talked about Venomous Tentacula in class. Longbottom said he wouldn't let even a hair on our heads near them until sixth year, because they were very dangerous. He said that when he was a sixth year student, his Herbology professor had allowed them to cruse loudly when they did the practical study on the plant. It made me wish I never got to sixth year.

Of course I got questions as to why I was with Andrews, but I had thought that they would ask, so I had already made up excuses. I said that she got lost and found me while I was relaxing from Slughorn's class and I had to bring her with me. They believed me.

At lunch, I could only think about seeing Mel. It was draining me, but I had to stay awake because we had Astronomy at midnight. Astronomy was nice. I'd always found the stars and planets interesting and now I was learning so much about them. Professor Sinistra was a nice teacher. She was old, but she knew many things and knew how to keep a lesson at midnight going.

My friends didn't notice anything again, or pretended they didn't. Either way, I was thankful.

At last lunch was over. Janet wanted me to help her with our Defence homework. Defence was the best lesson, by my opinion and Kettleburry was quite sweet. I somehow couldn't picture our Professor fighting dark wizards. But Janet thought that the lessons were kind of trash, so she pretended to take notes during the class, while instead she was sketching.

* * *

I hurried to the library. Mel and Teddy were already sitting at a table, a few books on it. When she saw me, Mel smiled and gestured to me to go and sit with them. I did, taking the seat opposite Mel. I was waiting for them to start the conversation, but it looked like they weren't going to. It appeared as if we were all waiting for someone else to make the first step.

At last, Mel did. "So, this is awkward," she commented. Teddy and I laughed softly. At first I thought that she wasn't going to say anything else, but she did. "I think you know why you're here, Danny," she said to me "I think that it's time Teddy and I tell you some stuff. You're probably gonna hate that it's about you and you didn't know it while we did, but I need you to listen to us."

I nodded. It can't be that bad, can it? It's funny to think that not too long ago I swore I would never forgive Mel, and now I was really close to forgiving her.

"Okay," Mel took a deep breath "Let's start. First of all, I believe you are familiar with the four Founders of Hogwarts. At least I hope your Slytherin friends have told you about them."

Of course they had. After explaining blood status to me, this was the next thing they talked to me about. I didn't say any of this out loud, choosing to nod instead.

"Great," Mel said "That means we can get right to it. Now, I'm not very good at the genealogy part. I get everything mixed up, so I'm going to have Teddy talk about that. If you may?"

"I may," Teddy replied jokingly and she giggled. Teddy opened one of the books which was called 'Descendants of Great Wizards' and turned it around so I could see it. It was a page with a family tree on it. According to the page's title, it was Salazar Slytherin's descendants.

"As you see," Teddy said, gesturing to the picture "Everything is going smoothly, until we reach here." I understood what he meant the moment I saw what he was pointing at. Where there had been many branches, now were only very few. Most of Slytherin's family must have died because the only family left now was that by the name of Gaunt.

"Marvolo Gaunt married and has two children, Morfin and Merope," the turquoise haired boy narrated to me "His wife dies and now they are Salazar Slytherin's last three descendants. But things get more complicated." He pointed to the bubble with Merope Gaunt's name in it. It is connected to a bubble marked 'Tom Riddle'.

"Merope fell in love with Tom Riddle, a Muggle," Teddy said and I scowled. She was a pureblood witch, why dirty her blood? "She married him, without his permission but through enchantment, and they had a son. His name was Tom Marvolo Riddle, but he changed his name years later. His new name was Voldemort."

I remembered being told about him. Teddy gave me a look, as if asking if he needed to explain him, but I shook my head so he could continue. "But he isn't out main concern," he said "Now, Marvolo and Morfin Gaunt are sent to Azkaban. Morfin is the first to return. Azkaban has taken its toll on him, so he is not completely sane. Years later, he is again imprisoned. During that year, he meets young pureblood witch Rose Karmaka.

"She was being held in prison for torturing a Muggleborn. So, she is young, only 22, and pretty so of course Morfin takes an interest in her. As I said, he is not completely himself, so one night he manages to enter her cell. Needless to say, Azkaban's populations grew by one that night.

"Rose is released from prison three months later. She returns to the wizarding world and she is pregnant with none other than the great Slytherin's next descendant. She gives birth to her daughter, Viola Gaunt.

"Viola is raised by her mother to become a real blood purist. She has the same beliefs the Slytherin family had. That's what everyone would say if they knew who her father was. Rose knew that her daughter's father was a Gaunt and what that meant, so she told no one else. It was only just discovered ten years ago.

"So Viola grows up and goes to school and all that fun stuff. Bear in mind that she is Lord Voldemort's first cousin. Then, her destiny leads her to marry a young wizard named Nalmus Odny. They have little baby Romanus and his little sister Demetra. To the disappointment of them all, Demetra turns out to be a Squib and is ostracised from the family.

"Romanus grows up and marries Silvia Ernosta. Guess what their son is named? You guessed it, Daniel Odny."

Teddy stopped and closed the book. I needed a while to process this, but when I did, I was horrified. Me, the heir of Slytherin? They had to be joking. I was Danny stinking Odny for Merlin's sake! I'm boring. I can't be the descendant of such a powerful and important wizard. _'The last descendant,'_ I thought. Voldemort was dead, so that left me.

"On to my favourite part," Mel took over the narration "The historical part. So, I think you know the basic stuff about Salazar Slytherin. He founded Hogwarts along with Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw. The years they all spent together in the school are kind of shady, so we don't know everything about them. What we know is that Salazar Slytherin left the school after some time, leaving behind only the Chamber of Secrets.

"And after that, his tracks get lost again. Wizards everywhere have been trying to find out what he was doing all those years for centuries, but no one has actually managed it. And then two little nerdy Metamorphmagi showed up and deserve to be praised, for not only have they tracked down the heir of Slytherin but also his whereabouts when he vanished from the map.

"It took lots, and I mean _lots_ , of research during the supposed theatre classes to do so. Remember I talked to you about Albus Dumbledore on the train ride to Hogwarts? Well, he knew everything, but couldn't tell us. And then guess what happened, he got killed. So now we were in the dark again. But that was all before we were born. He did though tell my parents that if yours had a child it would be very important, in case you don't remember me telling you. As you can imagine, he was being watched and couldn't reveal exactly why.

"I'll spare you the details of our research and skip right to it. So it turns out that Salazar Slytherin wasn't who we all thought he was. When wizards think of him, it's always as the evil blood purist who was the villain of the story. Okay, he _was_ a blood purist, but we're not so sure about the

"See, even before Slytherin blood purity was very important for some wizards. They fought for it, but the biggest blood purist had to be Ahriman Tolfazor. He gathered some followers, much like Voldemort did and killed Muggleborns, Half-bloods, anyone who didn't agree with his beliefs and even ones who he thought didn't completely agree. You could think of it as what Muggles call terrorism.

"Slytherin, although he too was a blood purist, didn't believe in his methods and refused to follow Tolfazor, swearing to defeat him. Both of them died and their work was left unfinished. At least, not from them. Many of Voldemort's followers were actually not one hundred percent loyal to Voldemort. They hoped that through what he did, they would be able to complete Tolfazor's vision of complete blood purity.

"There is a prophecy, one that can tell us exactly who and how can defeat Tolfazor forever, but it's lost. There are three places you can look for a prophecy, the one who made the prophecy, the one who heard it and the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of magic, in the Hall of Prophecies. We would prefer to avoid the last one, as the Ministry can be quite mistrusting.

"But one thing is for certain, the prophecy speaks of the Heir. Danny, _you_ are the one who can defeat Tolfazor. You have to prove that not everyone in Slytherin House is evil and favour blood purity. Now that you're the last one left, it's all up to you.

"Your parents were followers of Voldemort, until they found out that your father was the heir of Slytherin. Then, they turned against him, so that he could fulfil the prophecy, even though he'd never heard it. That's when other Death Eaters killed them, so that they cannot kill Tolfazor. That's what we can guess, of course. It's sad that they couldn't have told someone else that. Back then, it was believed that all of the Death Eaters were in Azkaban. This was what told us that there were still some left.

"But the main thing is that it's down to you, Danny. We are afraid that Tolfazor's followers might try to finish his work, and if they do, we have to be ready. Oh, and something else. Remember I told you that you can talk to snakes and that not many wizards can do that? Being a Parselmouth was a gift all descendants of Slytherin, as well as Slytherin himself possessed. And it would be nice if you didn't tell the rest of your Slytherin friends about this."

Once again, I needed to let all this sink in. Not only was I the heir of Salazar Slytherin, but I was also destined to defeat an evil wizard. How in Merlin's name was I going to do that?

 **Had you figured it out? Maybe. Maybe not. Let me know. Please review guys. It makes me sad that I don't get more reviews as the chapters get more intense. Or is this story trash? I don't know... Let me know! :)**


	10. Quidditch

**OMG double digit chapters guys! This is my first attempt at writing a Quidditch chapter, so I hope it's not horrible. Guess who reviewed? DSC Win. Love you! xoxo**

Two weeks after the big talk in the library, it was time for the first Quidditch game of the year.

As I was raised in the Muggle world, I had no idea what Quidditch was. I heard Danus and Marius obsessing over the fact that the first game was in a few days and asked them what it was. That earned me a look from them that made me fear that they would kill me. So they sat me down and explained everything to me.

It was a game played on broomsticks. There were seven players on each team. Three of those were the Chasers, two were the Beaters, one was the Keeper and the last one was the Seeker. The Chasers threw a red ball called the Quaffle to each other and tried to put it in a hoop, which earned its team ten points. The Keeper's job was to keep the Quaffle from entering the hoops. The Beaters hit two black balls, the Bludgers, with bats, trying to make them miss the players from their team and knock the others off their brooms. Last but not least, the Seeker searched for a flying a gold ball known as the Snitch. The one who caught it ended the game and gave his team 150 points.

I had to admit that it sounded really cool. The boys adored it and said that they would surely try out for the team next year, because first years weren't allowed. Zaria was also a huge fan, but Janet wouldn't be seen on a broomstick by anyone any time soon.

We had had flying lessons not too long ago. She most certainly didn't want to ride the broom and almost fell off. I, on the other hand, found it very entertaining. I loved the feeling of soaring through the air and flying around. Madam Hooch said that I was an excellent flyer. I decided that maybe I would give the team a shot next year too.

Even Mel loved Quidditch. Turns out that all of those years at the orphanage she had been trying to play it without all the flying and that had been strange game she played with all those balls.

Our friendship was coming back ever since the day at the library. I guess I was beginning to forgive her, and spending that time with her had definitely helped. I was happy, I finally realised that I had missed her all this time. Sure, Janet and everyone else were awesome, but I had known Mel my whole life. I was starting to be more like me now that we were on good terms again.

Neither of our Houses were playing today though. The game was between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. We did however know someone from the Hufflepuff team. Teddy played Seeker. This was his first match. Mel wanted to sit with me, so that we could cheer him up. But my other friends also wanted me to sit with them.

"So, who are you supporting?" I asked at the breakfast table.

"Ravenclaw, of course," Dominic answered "There's no way I'm supporting Hufflepuff."

"Me too," Zaria agreed. And then everyone else said the same. I felt kind of bad, because I was actually supporting Hufflepuff. But I told them that I agreed, so we wouldn't have complications.

"They have a new Seeker this year," Marius said.

Janet snorted. "I know," she said "The Lupin boy. Honestly, I don't know who in their senses would pick him."

"But then again, their Captain _is_ Sarah Grace," Dominic told her "She's a Mudblood. She isn't in her senses."

Danus almost choked on his pumpkin juice in laughter. We laughed softly. I felt bad at first, thinking that maybe I was laughing at Teddy, but then I realised that I was laughing at Sarah Grace. The Great Hall was beginning to empty, as students went to the match. "Will you escort me to the game, my lady?" Danus asked Zaria as he got up, offering her his hand.

"Why of course," she answered and took it. Danus kissed her hand and then they linked arms. We laughed at them.

We were about to leave when Mel came. Her hair was yellow with black streaks in it, the Hufflepuff colours. This wasn't going to go well, I could tell. "Danny, are you coming?" she asked me.

"You're going to the match with Andrews?" Janet asked me.

"Yeah," I answered, a bit anxious "I though why not?"

The blond girl looked at me in disbelief. Everyone else looked as shocked. I thought that maybe I hadn't used the right words or had said something wrong. But suddenly, I didn't mind that Mel was my friend. It didn't matter that my other friends didn't like her, she has been my best friend for years, and I couldn't forget about that because they don't like her. I looked at her, and she seemed quite surprised herself, almost as if she didn't expect me to say what I had said.

We left, leaving the Slytherins behind. Mel looked so happy. She kept talking to me about everything that had happened to her ever since we got to Hogwarts. She must be glad to have me back too. She led me to some seats. Next to us sat a boy and a girl. The boy had light brown hair and green eyes, and the girl had shoulder length dirty blond hair and light brown eyes. I recognised them as too of Teddy's friends from Hufflepuff.

Mel introduced them as Liam and Charlotte. They were nice. They talked to me, even though I was a Slytherin and I thought that maybe my friends had been overreacting when they talked so badly about Hufflepuff, because Teddy, Liam and Charlotte were all very nice. Charlotte said that there was a fourth person in the group, Rey, but she was playing in the team as Keeper.

"Hello everyone and welcome to this year's first Quidditch match," a boy's voice said. It was the one who narrated the game. I looked up and saw him with a microphone sitting with the teachers. Professor McGonagall seemed to be watching him wearily, afraid he might say something he shouldn't say. I recognised him as Ed Boyd, the Gryffindor third year I had ran into in the bathroom last month.

"Today's match, Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff," Ed said into the microphone "Let's give them a round of applaud." We all clapped as they flew into the court. Mel pointed out Teddy, who was dressed in yellow robes, like the rest of his team. Then, Liam found Rey.

"Both teams have seven players," Ed said as the players flew around "For the Hufflepuff team, we have Captain Sarah Grace, Chasers Kate Velca, Timothy Wesby and Hamish Tresh, Beaters are Sarah Grace and Dahlia Isha, Keeper Rey White and Seeker Teddy Lupin." The Hufflepuffs and everyone who supported Hufflepuff clapped loudly. "Go Teddy!" Mel, Liam and I shouted, Charlotte doing the same, before shouting for Rey too.

"Now, the Ravenclaw team," said Ed "Captain Tarazet Cobsworth, Chasers Bella Middlestone, Sophia Redger and Emily Swan, Beaters…" The Gryffindor announced the names of the Ravenclaw team exactly as he had the ones of the Hufflepuff team. When he was done, the two teams landed and the two Captains, Sarah and Tarazet, shook hands. Madam Hooch told them that they should play nice and fair and then they flew up again. They were hovering a little above the ground. Madam Hooch opened a box and released the two Bludgers, which started flying into the air. She then let out a tiny golden ball, the Snitch, which fluttered away and I lost sight of it. Lastly, she threw the Quaffle into the air and the game began.

"Wesby has the Quaffle," Ed said "He passes it to Velca. She is moving towards the Ravenclaw side. Middlestone has caught up with her. Velca passes the Quaffle back to Wesby. Middlestone almost caught it. Wesby is now close to the hoops. Oh, that was close. He just dodged a Bludger thrown by Ferbail. Nice mark Ferbail. Wesby throws the Quaffle to Tresh, but Swan leaps up and catches it."

Hamish Tresh looked disappointed he didn't catch the ball. The other Chasers flew towards where Swan was to try and reclaim the Quaffle. Sarah Grace shot a Bludger at her to slow her down, but missed. Swan was searching for her co players, to pass them the Quaffle, seeing that she was surrounded. Redger was catching up, but Velca was faster. She flew right into Swan and managed to get her to drop the Quaffle. Tresh caught it and started flying back towards the Ravenclaw hoops. He gave it to the other Chasers who kept passing it to each other until Wesby was in front of the hoops and threw it. It went through the hoop. We clapped.

All of this time, Teddy and the Ravenclaw seeker, Charles Butler, were hovering above the ground and everyone else. They must be looking for the Snitch. I was wondering how they were going to find it, it was pretty invisible.

When I looked back down at the match, Ravenclaw had the Quaffle and were zooming towards Rey. She was in a defensive position, prepared to block the enemies. Middlestone was in possession of the Quaffle. When she thought she was close enough, she threw it at Rey. But Rey flew right in front of the ball and grabbed it. We started clapping and Charlotte screamed "Rey you're awesome!" I swear I saw Teddy looking down and giving her a thumbs up.

"Keeper White now has the Quaffle," Ed said "She throws it to Velca. Velca catches it. She is moving towards Cobsworth and now she passes it to Tresh. But Tresh is being hunted by Redger. She leans towards him. Wow, great manoeuvre from Tresh who succeeded in avoiding the enemy. But Redger isn't giving up. She's getting closer again. She'd getting closer. She's almost there. She's only millimetres away from him. And… ow! Redger was just hit by a Bludger fired by Dahlia Isha. That girl's got style. I'm gonna marry you Dahlia." Dahlia turned to Ed and rolled her eyes at him as McGonagall appeared to be scolding him.

"Sorry, Professor," Ed continued "Apparently proposing isn't allowed. So what did I miss? Alright. Ravenclaw has the Quaffle now. Professor Kettleburry says that Swan stole it again, but this time from Wesby. Swan's good at stealing things. Is that why she stole Bryan Yester's heart?"

I suppose that Ed just mentioned her boyfriend. Swan was quite older than me. She must be a sixth year. I had to admit though that she was kind of pretty. She has short ginger hair, as long as mine, and hazel eyes. She seemed to blush at the comment, without losing concentration from what she was doing. If my eyes didn't deceive me, a boy from the Ravenclaw stands was also blushing. Possibly Bryan Yester.

Swan took the Quaffle all the way to Rey. She was being pursued, but the Beaters from her team were successfully aiming Bludgers at them. Luckily they all dodged them. Redger still looked like shit. I could see her with Madam Pomfrey. Swan aimed for the right, so Rey leaned towards the right. But then Swan threw the Quaffle to the left and Rey didn't have enough time to change where she was. The Quaffle went right through the hoop. The Ravenclaws started clapping madly. Rey looked a bit defeated. "It's okay!" Liam shouted to her. That gave her a small smile.

"The score is 10-10," Ed said "Both teams are tied."

During the next ten minutes, Velca scored another three points for Hufflepuff and Wesby scored another two. Tresh looked quite anxious. He was a new member of the team, even though he was a fourth year, according to Liam. Ravenclaw had scored another three points. It was now obvious that Hufflepuff had the lead, and I hoped Teddy would be the one to catch the Snitch.

And then something happened. Just as Sarah Grace threw a Bludger at Middlestone, Teddy dived. Charles Butler followed him. Suddenly, the whole audience was watching _them_. I soon saw it, a small golden speck just visible fluttering near the ground. Butler looked like he was going to get there first, but then the Snitch flew away.

This time Charlotte saw it and pointed it out to us. It was hovering just by Ed's microphone. _'Well,'_ I thought _'This ought to be funny!'_ Ed and the professors had no idea and hadn't noticed. Ed was now talking about the point Middlestone scored and the Bludger that had just hit Dahlia Isha, too busy to notice the small golden ball that was fluttering beside him.

Butler was still looking for the Snitch, but Teddy beat him to it. In a matter of seconds, he was zooming through the air towards the stand. It took Butler a moment to realise that the Hufflepuff Seeker was after the Snitch, but he finally did. He was flying on his broomstick, trying to reach Teddy, but just wasn't fast enough.

Teddy reached the stand and Ed screamed. The crowd burst out laughing but then quieted down when Teddy held up his hand, a golden ball, still fluttering, grasped in it.

Madam Hooch blew her whistle. "The game is over," she announced "Hufflepuff wins!"

Me, Mel, Liam and Charlotte got up from our seats clapping. The rest of the Hufflepuffs and many others did the same, calling out to the players. Said players landed and hugged each other happily. Timothy Wesby and Hamish Tresh lifted Teddy onto their shoulders. I laughed a bit at the look of horror on his face when they almost dropped him.

We met him and Rey as soon as they were out of the changing rooms. We congratulated them on their victory and they thanked us. Rey is really nice too. She said that they were going to have a party in the Hufflepuff common room to celebrate and invited me and Mel as well. I didn't know what to say. Mel spoke for me, saying that we would definitely go.

My friends confronted me when I went to my common room before going to the party. They demanded why I had been with Andrews and the Hufflepuffs, so I told them the truth. It strangely felt good. I told them that Mel and I have been friends for years, leaving out the orphanage part, and that we had had an argument before coming to Hogwarts and now it was sorted out. They looked pretty stunned. "Well, you seem crazy when it comes to friendship," Janet told me and then smiled "But then you must be crazy for befriending me too."

"Yeah, me too," Dominic agreed, chuckling. This day was going so great. I watched my first ever Quidditch match and I loved it, I met Teddy's awesome friends, I hung out with Mel, I hung out with my other friends, my friends accepted my friendship with Mel and then I went to my first wizarding party.

So at the party, some sixth years, including Chaser Timothy Wesby, brought something called butterbeer. Mel and Liam advised me to stay away from it for the time being. I met Sarah Grace and she was really sweet and so nice. I forgot she was a Mudblood and just talked to her. Sure, at first she was a bit weird, because I was a Slytherin, but everyone was and they ended up talking to me. All in all it was great.

As I talked to Sarah though, I wondered why my friends would tell me that we are better than Mudbloods if Sarah and some other ones I met there were so nice.

 **So there you have it. REVIEW! REVIEW!**


	11. Holidays

**Here comes a quite relevant chapter. I think all us school kids are counting down to the days left before the holidays! Thanks once again DSCWin for your encouraging reviews and also huge shout out to EnderBlazeHybrid for following and favouriting! I haven't had one of those in a while, so thank you *hugs you***

It was December and the Christmas holidays were getting closer and closer. It started snowing and I couldn't wait to go outside. Inside the Hogwarts castle, the Professors had decorated. Not one but twelve huge trees were in the Great Hall, decorated with all kinds of ornaments. There were decoration everywhere and even the ghosts seemed more cheerful. Even the Bloody Baron, the Slytherin ghost.

Slughorn asked us to write down our names if we wanted to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays, in case our parents weren't going to pick us up. Danus said that we should all stay, the whole group and spend the holidays together. We all agreed that it was a great idea, so we signed our names. But Zaria said that her parents had already planned something.

"They've been planning this holiday to Russia forever," she said "And they've invited the whole family. I can't not go. Sorry."

We forgave her, it was alright. But the next big worry was Christmas presents.

I knew I had to get something for Mel, Teddy, Janet, Danus, Marius, Zaria and Dominic, but was there anyone else I had to think of? I thought that maybe I should get something for Liam, Charlotte and Rey, Teddy's friends, but I didn't really know them. I decided that I wouldn't get them something, but if they did, I would find a way to make up to them.

Things were pretty normal until something very weird happened. So Slughorn walked into the classroom one morning and announced that he was going to hold a Christmas party for the members of his Slug Club. I honestly had never heard of the Slug Club before. But Teddy had. He said that Slughorn invited students with famous parents and had little parties with them. He had been forced to enter the Club last year, due to his Auror parents.

When I told my friends they started panicking. Janet cursed her father for working in the Ministry and Dominic wanted to run into a closet and hide because his mother was a famous potion maker. They seemed to be as excited as I was. But I didn't think he would ask me to join the Club, he had been almost terrified at the thought of my parents being who they were. He would probably ask Mel since her parents were also Aurors, but lucky her, she would be away.

On our second to last Potions lesson, Slughorn told me, Janet, Dominic, Mel, my dorm mate James Candon and some other students I didn't know to wait in the classroom after we were finished. I saw Janet tense next to me. We were fearing this. But why did he have me wait?

My worst fears were confirmed when he said that he was inviting us to his Slug Club Christmas party on Christmas Eve, because Professor Snape won't allow him to keep us away from our friends on Christmas day, and that we were the new members of the Club. So yeah, that won't be exciting! When we left the classroom, Janet looked like she was going to throw up. Mel was skipping because she was going to be away. I joked teasing her until Dominic said something and I had to pay attention to him.

The day after that, soon after the owl post arrived, Mel came to our table. She had bright red hair, almost as if she was trying to match the occasion that was coming up. Zaria, Janet and Danus were talking about something that I can't even remember, but it was so funny hearing them talking about it. I was laughing so hard my stomache was hurting. So Mel came to my rescue.

"Danny," she said "My parents just sent me a letter. They're saying that I can bring you home for the holidays too. They really want to meet you. And Teddy's going to be there too."

I felt bad then, because spending Christmas with Mel and Teddy and their families sounded like so much fun, but I couldn't due to arranging with my friends from Slytherin. And she seemed so eager to introduce me to her family. Merlin, they must know my life story by now. And perhaps I would like to meet everyone too.

"It sounds great," I answered "But I already have plans. We're gonna stay here and spend Christmas together with the guys and Janet. Sorry."

"Oh," Mel seemed a little disappointed "Maybe next year."

"Yes," I said to encourage her "Definitely next year. I promise!"

"Okay," she said and skipped back to her table. I watched her until she was back there and then turned back to my breakfast.

Luckily it was a Saturday, which meant that we could hang out in our dorms and look through Christmas presents. Marius got hold of the closest thing the wizarding world has to catalogues and we decided that we would go to our dorm after breakfast and look through it. Then we would give it to the girls because they also shared a dorm and then to Dominic.

It was only us three in the dorm. James wasn't here and it made me wonder where he was. He didn't appear to talk to anyone, what's more have friends, so it seemed weird that he wasn't in the dorm. But then I guess he was probably in the library. I've seen him read so many books he most likely ran out. It's strange that I've never even talked to the guy and we share a dorm.

But Danus was clicking his fingers in front of my face, snapping me back into reality. I smacked his hand when he kept doing it and he faked being in pain and his feelings being hurt. Marius got up and hugged him, stroking his hair, and telling him that he was going to keep the bad boy away, while Danus pretended to cry. I pretended to be offended. But then again, I was the heir of Slytherin. How more evil can someone be?

"So who are we getting presents for?" Marius asked after five seconds and we switched back to serious-mode. We all sat down on his bed, looking at the catalogues.

"I'm getting for you, Janet, Zaria, Dominic and my family," Danus told me "I think that's everyone." He added that last part smirking. Marius punched his arm. Those two could honestly be so ridiculous sometimes.

"I'm getting for Dom, Zaria, Janet, Danny, you and my family," Marius said to him.

"I'm going to get something for Mel, Janet, you two, Zaria, Teddy and I don't have a family," I said lastly. They looked at me almost sadly, like they felt sorry for my parents dying, which I suppose they did.

"I already know what I'm getting you!" Danus told me proudly "Pyjamas. You can't go around wearing those rags."

"You just helped boost my self-esteem," I answered sarcastically.

"I think I'll get Janet something for her hair," Marius said as if he hadn't heard us "You know how she loves styling it every morning. Zaria says she waked up an hour earlier to do it. I'm thinking I'll just get Zaria some Every Flavour Beans, but I'm getting Dominic Chocolate Frogs for his card collection. She might get cranky thinking that I didn't get her something more creative."

"Get her something from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes," Danus proposed "They may be blood traitors, but they sell great stuff and Zaria loves a good prank."

"Maybe I will, I'm getting my brother a Reusable Hangman from them anyway," Marius agreed "You know her well, I should be asking you what I should get her."

"She's my best friend," Danus teased and I scolded them for acting like girls. That earned me a pillow to the head by Danus.

"I know that I'll buy Mel a scarf," I said "It's been kind of a tradition. I always got her a scarf for Christmas since I was six years old. For Teddy I'm going to get a copy of 'Quidditch Through The Ages'. He loves Quidditch and he strangely enough doesn't have that book. I just hope Mel and I don't have the same idea. For Janet I was thinking maybe a notebook where she can write down what she has to do. She keeps saying that she forgets everything. I was thinking of getting Dominic Chocolate Frogs as well, but now that you're getting them for him, I have to think of something else. Perhaps something Falmouth Falcons themed?"

"Yeah," Danus told me "He'll love that! And Zaria?"

"Honestly, I have no idea," I admitted "I hope I'll think of something while looking through these. And there's no way I'm telling you two what I'm getting you!"

Danus told us his ideas and in less than an hour we had everything sorted out. All we had to do now was order the things via owl mail and send the money with it.

Halfway through September, Professor McGonagall, the Headmistress, called me to her office and told me that my parents had a bank account in Gringotts, the wizards' bank. She asked me if I would like to start using it, so I said yes and was now equipped with bronze Knuts, silver Sickles and golden Galleons. Now I could pay for my Christmas presents.

We were about to close the catalogues when I thought of something. "Don't you think we should get James something?" I asked my two friends. They looked confused.

"Who's James?" Marius asked me.

"The boy who we share the dorm with," I explained and they looked at me surprised.

"You actually know his name?" Danus asked surprised.

"I heard it at the Sorting," I said and realised why they had been surprised. James had probably never talked to them.

"I don't know," Marius told me, running a hand through his hair "The kid never talks to, as far as I'm concerned."

"But it would be weird if we get him nothing," I pressed. I recalled being the boy who spoke to no one in the dorm, back at the orphanage, and I knew there was always a reason behind it. It was never because you didn't give a shit about your dorm mates. In my case, it had been because they were bullies.

"Just get him candy," Marius shrugged "Say that it's from all of us. I'm not going to waste too much on someone I don't even talk to." Danus nodded, agreeing. I thought it wasn't the best way to see things, but didn't say anything. I added some Every Flavour Beans on the list.

We decided to send Azriel, since he hardly ever got out of the Owlery, due to the fact that I had no one to send mail to. He even looked excited when I walked up to him, envelope in hand. He let me attach it to his leg before flying away.

Mel, Teddy and Zaria left the next day. I said goodbye to all of them. Mel promised to send me a Christmas card and a cool present. Teddy said that his friends also wished me a Merry Christmas and I said to tell them that I wish them one as well. Zaria made us swear we would pull a good Zara during the Christmas Feast.

We decided on something more harmless than our Halloween prank. Even the girls had taken a break after that one. We thought that next year we would do something less extreme. No need getting detention again. Same went for the Christmas prank. It didn't take too long to agree on just a simple spell.

We spent the rest of the day outside in the snow. We threw snowballs at each other and built a snowman. It was so much fun. I was glad I'd stayed behind and hadn't missed all of this.

Our Christmas presents arrived just the next day, which was really exciting. We had to be in the dorm at different times so we could wrap the presents without revealing them to one another. It got even funnier when Danus and I were outside and he suddenly needed to go to the bathroom really badly. He claimed that there was no way he could make it to the boys' bathroom and he had to go to the one in the dorm. Marius wasn't hearing it and wouldn't allow him to go in. He almost peed himself before Dominic let him into _his_ dorm.

On Christmas Eve we had Slughorn's party, which was just horrible. He asked everyone about their parents and what they were up to now. I honestly didn't have something to say and he never asked me anything. James Candon looked pretty tense when Slughorn asked him about his father and he gave the smallest response possible. I heard his voice for literally the first time.

Slughorn asked Janet about her father and if he was doing something in the Ministry now. She said that indeed he was working on a new law that might come out in a few years, but it was secret and she wasn't allowed to talk about it. Dominic was asked how his mother was and how her brewing was going. He had admitted to me that he had absolutely no idea, but he told Slughorn that she was doing something quite interesting.

Apparently James Candon's father turned out to be working with the Minister for Magic. According to Slughorn, he had for years. Nero Candon wasn't going for Minister, he only worked as his assistant. I must have been the only one thinking that this was unusual.

There were supposed to be two other first years, Diana Zine from Ravenclaw and another Gryffindor named Michael, but they had gone home as well as many others, much to Slughorn's displeasure. Everyone else was second year and over. And everyone had important parents.

And after we talked about our family, he had invited some band and they played while we just talked to each other, an occasional Slughorn appearing. Some other kids were actually serving us food and drinks, so that was quite awkward.

The party finally finished and I swear I have never been more relieved to be back in my common room. Danus and Marius were probably asleep, so it was only me, Janet and Dominic. And James, but he wasn't really part of the group.

We said good night to each other before each one went to their dorm. James and I walked through the same door, but it felt like we weren't in the same room. He went into the bathroom, came out a bit later and then went to his bed and pulled the drapes around him.

I brushed my teeth, changed into my pyjamas and went to bed, thinking that tomorrow was Christmas.

 **So are _you_ excited for the holidays? I know I am. I went Christmas shopping for my family a month ago! I think I might be a little too excited :) Anyway review please!**


	12. Christmas

**Ahh, I can't wait for Christmas. So this chapter is my wish for some happy holidays. DSC Win, you are an amazing person.**

I woke to shaking and Danus screaming "Danny wake up! It's Christmas!" I immediately opened my eyes and found Danus standing over me, shaking me. A pile of gifts was at the foot of my bed. Marius was sitting in his bed.

"Merry Christmas, Danus," I said, smiling at my friends "Merry Christmas, Marius."

Then we started opening presents. I picked one in white wrapping paper with Christmas trees on it and a green bow. The card said that it was from Mel. Inside was a moving picture of the two of us. I had my arm around her shoulders and we were both smiling happily. I remembered taking this picture a year ago. It had been at one of her theatre performances. Just as we were about to leave, some random lady had demanded taking a picture. I turned it around. On the back was written _Danny and Mel 8-12-2009_. And then underneath that, I recognised Mel's handwriting. _Family isn't always blood,_ I read, _It's the people in your life who want you in theirs. The ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile, and who love you no matter what._

I wiped my eyes. No, I wasn't crying, it just got a bit hot and I was sweating. Who was I kidding? I was touched by that. The picture had come with a picture frame, but she must have wanted me to read this, so she hadn't put it in it. I took the frame and opened it, inserting the picture. Then I placed it on my bedside table.

Next, I opened Janet's present. She had wrapped it in red wrapping paper and a white bow. She had given me a book entitled 'Introduction to the Wizarding World'. I opened it and it was like a glossary for everything magic related. That way I didn't need to keep asking about things, I could just open this book.

Danus and Marius had had the same idea concerning my present. Danus' gift was my own copy of 'Quidditch Through The Ages' and Marius' was a set of Quidditch balls to play with. I glanced at them and they smiled. Looks like we were going to play some Quidditch through the day. But Danus hadn't been joking when he had told me he was getting me pyjamas. Along with the book were a pair of green pyjamas.

A box wrapped in gold wrapping paper but no bow was from Zaria. Her gift was Dungbombs. Of course, what could I have expected from Zaria?

Teddy had gotten me a quill which according to the card that had come with it was an eagle-feather quill. He said that they were much more comfortable to hold and made your handwriting quite neater. I was looking forward to trying it out.

Dominic got me Chocolate Frogs, of course. He had shown me his collection of Chocolate Frog cards and he was obsessed with them. He had told me that I ought to have my own, so he got me all of these for Christmas so I could start it. This was going to be fun.

So now I had two presents left. This was strange, as I didn't recall knowing anyone else who would get me something. One of them had wrapping paper with snowmen and a golden ribbon, while the other had red paper with white snowflakes and a green bow. I picked the one with the snowmen paper and looked at the card.

 _Merry Christmas Danny!_

 _From Liam, Charlotte and Rey_

That was really kind of the Hufflepuffs to get me something, but I felt sad because I hadn't gotten them anything. I tore the wrapping paper and found some Cauldron Cakes. Great, I loved those!

That only left the mystery of the snowflake present. I searched for a card and found one.

 _Dear Danny,_

 _We would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you for being such a good friend to Mel._

 _Lots of love,_

 _Bianca and Daren Andrews_

Merlin, those were Mel's parents. They had gotten me a present for Christmas. I had to admit that I wasn't expecting this. I opened the present and saw that Mr. and Mrs Andrews had sent me Christmas cake. But they had sent me _a lot_ of Christmas cake. I would have to share it with somebody. I heard a groan and saw that it had come from Danus.

"Edmund thinks he can knit and sent me socks for Christmas," he said and showed us two things with no shape. They were full of holes, which must have been where Edmund hadn't been successful in keeping everything together. Edmund was Danus' little brother. He was ten years old which meant that he was starting Hogwarts next year.

Marius was still opening presents from all his family. I looked to the fourth bed in the dorm and saw James. He was awake and eying the Every Flavour Beans I had got him, the only thing on his bed, strangely. He looked like he didn't know what to do with them. Had no one else sent him a present?

"Merry Christmas," I told him and he looked up in surprise "Me, Danus and Marius wanted to get you something. If you don't like them, it's okay." Which wasn't true, it wasn't total okay, I had paid for those, but I just wanted to make him feel comfortable.

He looked at me and smiled softly, before opening the box and picking a thankfully good flavoured bean. It warmed my heart that I had made someone happy on Christmas Day.

We met up with Janet and Dominic at the common room before going to breakfast. We talked a bit about what we got and agreed that we were definitely playing Quidditch later. Dominic got his own wizard chess board and really wanted to play, so we decided we'd do that to. I made a note to find out what made that chess wizard chess from Janet's book.

Everyone was cheerful today and even two Hufflepuff girls who had stayed wished us a Merry Christmas. Janet and the others seemed kind of disgusted to be associating with Hufflepuffs, but I thought it was sweet. The only Hufflepuffs who talked to me Teddy, Liam, Charlotte, Rey and Sarah because of my House.

We had pancakes and waffles with chocolate syrup for breakfast. We ate so much our stomachs hurt, so we put off the Quidditch for a few hours and retired to the common room for wizard chess. I had just enough time to check it out in my book. It said that the pieces moved and smashed each other, so it sounded cool.

We played a few rounds and it really was awesome. After that we decided that it was now time for Quidditch. I brought me new Quidditch balls but we weren't allowed brooms, so we asked for some we could use and Madam Hooch gave us the ones for the lessons. Dominic said that they were old models and not fast enough, but they were all we could get. Next year I decided that I was going to buy myself a broom.

There were only five of us, we couldn't even complete one team, so we split up and mad two small teams. Janet didn't want to play so she was the referee. Danus and Marius were one team and Dominic and I were another. There were only two of us, so we left out the Bludgers and Dominic and Marius played both Chasers and Keepers, while Danus and I were Seekers.

The first game ended with me catching the Snitch and Dominic and I won the game. We played another five games and I somehow caught it every time except once. I suppose I had good eyesight and a relatively fast broom. But everyone else insisted that I was born to be a Seeker and that I should try out for the team next year. Apparently our Seeker, Cleo Brushwick, was in her seventh year and was leaving. I decided that I should seriously consider it.

"It was meant to be!" Janet said, a bit dramatically and we laughed.

We had a great lunch and then showed off our presents. We went outside again and had yet another epic snowball fight. We built a snowman too, even though it's really something childish. It was fun in the wizard way because we levitated the snow to make it.

Finally, it was time for the Christmas Feast. I have to admit that it was pretty amazing. There were a hundred turkeys, which was quite a lot of food considering it was only the ten of us students who had stayed behind and the professors, but who cares. There were also lots of roast and boiled potatoes, chipolatas, buttered peas, gravy and cranberry sauce. And there's no way I would forget the wizard crackers. I pulled a bunch of them with my friends and Professor Longbottom wanted to pull one with me and they didn't only pop, like the Muggles' ones did, they literally exploded.

Halfway through the Feast, Dominic pulled out his wand. It was time for our (harmless) prank. The rest of us copied him. We waved our wands at the ceiling, while keeping them concealed under the table, and murmured the incantation. In a matter of seconds, snowflakes started to fall on the table. A girl from Hufflepuff jumped when one landed on her nose. A Professor with huge glasses stared at the piece of turkey she was about to eat and was now covered in snow. McGonagall laughed heartily. "Someone has decided to bring the weather inside," she said.

All in all, it was the best Christmas ever! I can't recall ever having had so much fun before that.

But then that night, before going to bed, Dominic had to ask the accurst question. "Danny, I get that your parents are dead, but where did you live in the Muggle world?" he asked me.

I had been dreading this question. It was like my big secret and I didn't want them to know. I had told Janet when we met at the Sorting, but only her. Luckily she hadn't told anyone else, something else that made her a great friend.

All my friends had grown up in mansions and manors and I had grown up in an orphanage because my aunt had abandoned me there. It was really embarrassing and I had wished that somehow I could keep it a secret from them. I should've known that secrets don't stay secrets forever. At some point, something happens that lets it out.

"I grew up in an orphanage," I confessed. Danus, Marius and Dominic looked surprised. Janet didn't.

"My crazy aunt dumped me outside one after my parents were killed," I said, there was no stopping me now "She fucking left me because I was a wizard and she was a Squib. She left and never came to even see me or ask how I was. That's where I met Mel and she was my only friend there. Prior to coming to Hogwarts, I've never had more than one friend. Everyone else hated me and I hated my life there. They would bully me and I had no clue why. I was too ordinary to be bullied. Well, that's wrong because turns out I'm a wizard and no one told me, not even Mel, until I came here. Maybe even _they_ could see that I was different. Everyone but me!"

This actually turned out a bit more intense than I'd planned. My original idea had been to only tell them about the orphanage, but then I felt the need to tell someone about everything. The looks on my friends' faces told me that they wished they hadn't asked. Way to go Danny, let's see who will still want to be your friend now.

"And let me guess," Marius said "You didn't tell us all this time because you thought we would never talk to you again."

He caught up quite fast. I nodded.

"You are one dumbass," he said and smiled "An absolute idiot. Do you honestly think that I go around judging people by where they grew up and in which environment?"

"Yeah," Danus agreed "No one does. And if they do, they're crazy!"

"For once those two have their senses," Dominic said pointing at my two dorm mates "I agree. We will be your friends no matter what. I'm just disappointed you didn't feel good enough to tell us before."

"Janet knew," I said "I told her at the sorting."

"So what?" Danus faked being annoyed "You like her better than us?"

"Of course he does," Janet says and wraps her arm around me "Didn't you know? Ugh, you're so behind!"

We all had a good laugh. We stayed in the common room doing nonsense for a while and then Janet and Marius seemed like they were about to pass out on the couches. That's when we decided that the day was over and it was time for bed.

We each went to our dorm and fell onto our beds. I think Marius slept in his robes, but I can't be certain. I changed into my new emerald green pyjamas and went to sleep.

 **Hope you liked it. Leave me a review to make me happy because I hate school and tests and am studying 24/7 these days. Also, let me know what you want for Christmas. Me, books.**


	13. Telling The Professors

**Where would I be without my trusty follower and reviewer DSCWin? You rock! But come on, guys, it can't be that hard to review :( Anyway, sorry if I have been straining from the main topic, we're back on it now. Have fun! :))**

For New Year, Janet showed us how to get to the kitchens. We got a bunch of cookies and hot chocolate from the house elves on New Year's Eve and stayed in the common room. We ate the cookies and drank the hot chocolate while Danus informed us about the time on the new watch his parents had gotten him for Christmas. We counted down from thirty and when we got to zero, we screamed "Happy New Year!"

The students that had left came back the next day. It was great to see Mel and Teddy again and wish them a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year without a distance between us. They were happy too. They thanked me for their gifts and in turn I thanked them for theirs.

We spent the rest of the day together. They introduced me to the giant, Hagrid, and he was very kind and nice. I could tell that he seemed sceptical about me and I couldn't tell if he had liked me or not. I remembered the conversation between the three of them that I had overheard and concluded that he was suspicious. I didn't bring it up and went on with my life.

Lessons started again the day after that. The break had been so nice I wish it hadn't ended. Now it was tiring again. Going from lesson to lesson and doing homework. Merlin, it was so trying. The bright side though was that when neither of these were happening, I got to hang out with my friends. Of course, even to that there was a downside, I had to choose which group of friends I spent time with, because each group hated the other. Mel and Teddy wondered what on Earth I found so interesting in the Slytherins and the Slytherins wondered what in Merlin's name I found interesting in Mel and Teddy.

Sadly, after the first week of school, Mel, Teddy and I came to an important realisation. We had to find a missing prophecy and hadn't even started searching for it.

Mel said once again that there were three ways to find a prophecy and I honestly didn't like the sound of any of them. The one who gave the prophecy might be a serial killer for all we know and the same goes to the one who heard it. And breaking into the Ministry of Magic didn't sound like a very smart idea.

"We don't have to break in," I had said.

"It's the only way," Teddy argued "There's no way they're letting three kids in, and especially not into the Department of Mysteries. Even my uncle Harry can't get us in there."

Teddy's godfather was the famous Harry Potter. I looked him up in my book the first time I heard him mention him. He is the wizard who defeated Voldemort. I don't know what to think about that since Voldemort was like my uncle or something and I don't totally disagree with the fact that Mudbloods are inferior to us. But Harry Potter is a big hero and if Teddy says he's great and likes him, I guess I'll like him too.

A thought crossed my mind at some point that we should talk to the Professors and share our knowledge with them. They were older than us and perhaps they could help us in some way. As expected, Mel and Teddy didn't like the idea at all.

"Are you crazy?" Mel all but yelled at me. Even Madam Pince, the half deaf librarian, heard her. She appeared next to us out of nowhere and threatened to kick her out if she was so loud again. Mel turned as red as her hair.

"Why not?" I asked when Pince was gone.

"Because they will tell everyone," Teddy said "And who knows what they will do with you? One of Uncle Harry's Professors turned out to be a Death Eater in disguise once."

"But what if they _can_ help us?" I insisted "Isn't it worth a shot?"

Teddy and Mel were quite. They appeared to be having a conversation through stares and it was quite uncomfortable not knowing what they were saying. I sat in my chair for at least two minutes, just playing with my hands and my tie while I waited for them. Mel was the one who finally broke the silence.

"Maybe we could try," she said and I wanted to get up from my chair and jump up and down.

"But," Mel held up her hand and my excitement ended "Only one Professor. We don't want all of them involved."

At first I thought _'Okay. Works for me,'_ but then my thoughts turned to _'How did they say that with stares? Do they have telepathic communication or something?'_ I made a mental note to ask them about that later.

"So who are we telling?" I asked.

"Not Slughorn," Teddy immediately said and I couldn't agree more. It was enough I had to bear Slughorn as a Potions Professor as well as my Head of House.

"What about Longbottom?" Mel proposed. It wasn't a bad idea, I liked Professor Longbottom.

"He is way too close to my uncle Harry," retorted Teddy "He'll tell him."

"Sinistra?" I thought.

"She barely knows us," Mel said "But Professor Kettleburry knows us well and she's really sweet."

"Sweet," I said "But trustworthy? I'd rather tell someone else my secret."

"Flitwick?" Teddy said.

"What about McGonagall?" Mel said.

I had to admit that it wasn't a bad idea. It wasn't a bad idea at all. McGonagall was Mel's Head of House but also the Headmistress and had been in this school for so many years. She knew Albus Dumbledore well and she was certainly trustworthy. She made me feel like I could trust her with something like this. And who knew, maybe, just maybe, she might find a way to get us into the Ministry of Magic herself. That would be a miracle, but she did seem like the type of person who would go to great measures to help you accomplish something important. And defeated perhaps the most evil wizard seemed quite important.

"I like that suggestion," Teddy admitted.

"Yeah," I agreed "I do too."

"Great," said Mel "So it's decided. We're going to tell Professor McGonagall that Danny is the descendant of a dark wizard who might return to kill us all. That can't go too bad." She added the last part sarcastically. Perhaps she was right.

"Are we going now?" I asked.

"No!" Teddy exclaimed silently, no us getting Madam Pince mad at us again "We'll need to think about it. I mean, we can't just march into her office right now with no clue of what to do and tell her. Let's go tomorrow or something."

We agreed to go the next day and left the library because it was late and we had to go to our dorms soon or we would get caught by Filch or his creepy cat and get detention. And personally, I couldn't stand another detention this year. Especially not one like the last one which included me making potions with Slughorn.

When I got back to my common room, nearly everyone was asleep. The only people there were two seventh years, a boy and a girl, who were snogging on one of the couches. I sneaked past them trying to get over the shock. They didn't even notice me. I tiptoed into my dormitory and found the drapes around James' bed closed and Danus and Marius were talking sitting on Marius' bed. I said goodnight to them and went to sleep.

Ironically enough, we had Transfiguration the next day. All the time I was staring at McGonagall and trying to imagine talking to her. Janet, who was sitting next to me, had to nudge me several times because she claimed I was zoning out and I had to pay attention in Transfiguration because it was very difficult and she wasn't going to be the one tutoring me when I the time came that I didn't know anything and the exam was the next day.

It was a difficult lesson indeed. Mel was very confused and actually copied _my_ homework. And that was saying something.

Lunch that day was spaghetti, one of my favourites. I have the feeling people would say that they were so anxious they couldn't even eat, but I must admit that that didn't apply to me. I ate perfectly well. I had thought about this so much during the lessons that I was ready and I felt confident. Dominic was looking for someone to go with him and hex a Ravenclaw kid who had been blocking the hallway as we were coming. It sounded interesting but I couldn't make it and a detention was guaranteed anyway.

When we were done, Dominic left with Zaria and everyone else but I went to the library to look up information on the Herbicide Potion. Slughorn said that we had made excellent progress throughout the year so far and couldn't wait for next year. I, on the other hand, could.

I met up with Mel and Teddy and we made our way to McGonagall's office. I must have been the only one who wasn't anxious at all. Teddy was tense and Mel's hair kept changing colour. And then it went from just her hair to her features in general. At some point her skin turned orange and some random kid chose that moment to walk by. He freaked out and ran off and that's when we pointed it out to Mel. She turned her skin and eyes back to their normal colour and then morphed her hair lime green.

Only once we were outside the office did we realise that we didn't have the password to enter. We started saying a bunch of words that made or made no sense until Professor McGonagall actually walked up to us from behind.

"Mr. Lupin, Mr. Odny, Miss Andrews," she said and caused all three of us to turn around "May I ask why you are trying to enter my office?"

We looked at each other trying to think of something to say. She folded her arms and looked at us waiting for an answer. "We have something important to tell you, Professor," I said.

"Well, come along then," she said and I let out a breath I didn't realise I was holding.

McGonagall said the password, which apparently was a word I didn't even think existed, 'accipitriforme'. The stone gargoyle that was in front of us leapt aside, revealing a slowly ascending circular staircase. She led the way up the staircase and soon we found ourselves in the office itself. I had to admit that it was massive and breathtaking. It was a circular room, with portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses on the walls. There was a claw-footed desk in the centre and on a shelf behind the desk a shabby, tainted wizard's hat which I recognised as the Sorting Hat.

The Headmistress sat down behind her desk. "So, what would you like to discuss with me?" she asked us.

"Professor, have you got a copy of 'Descendants of Great Wizards'?" Teddy asked her.

In response, she pulled out her wand and said "Accio 'Descendants of Great Wizards'." The book Teddy had used to tell me about Slytherin floated in her direction and she grabbed it and gave it to him.

Just like he had done in the library, Teddy explained in the best way he could what they had found concerning Salazar Slytherin's bloodline. McGonagall listened closely and seemed as shocked as I had when he reached the conclusion. She readjusted her glasses and looked at me. I didn't know if I should look back or look away.

"That is… very interesting, Mr. Lupin," she said to Teddy "But I am not certain that I can find such information valid."

My heart sank. If McGonagall didn't believe us, there was no way she was going to help us find the prophecy. My two companions looked just as disappointed as I did.

"Professor please!" Mel said "You have to believe us. We've researched everything. I know all the historical part and I can tell you everything you need to know. I can even tell you what Salazar Slytherin's favourite breakfast dish was! You just have to know that we're telling the truth, we swear!"

"Calm down, Miss Andrews," McGonagall said, rising from her seat and relocating herself among us. "I want to believe you, I do," she continued "But it is a lot to process."

"Ask Professor Dumbledore," Mel said pointing at the portrait of a wizard with a long silver beard wearing purple robes "He knew too."

McGonagall looked at the portrait in surprise and then walked towards it. "Albus," she said addressing the wizard I imagined was the famous Albus Dumbledore "You knew about this as well?"

The portrait of Dumbledore nodded. "I didn't have the time to tell anyone," he told the current Headmistress "I only hoped that someone would figure it out after me." He gave Teddy and Mel a sweet smile that caused Mel to blush.

I looked at McGonagall who seemed sceptical. But I thought that perhaps now that Dumbledore had told her that all this was true and that I was truly the heir of Slytherin, she would help us.

"I admire the courage it must have taken to come and tell me about this," she said as she turned back to us "And I award your Houses ten points for each of you, but I fail to see what led you to do it."

"We're looking for an ancient prophecy," I said "One that mentions Slytherin's heir and Tolfazor. We need your help to get it."

McGonagall took a moment to think about it before finally saying, "I'll help you as much as I can."

"Thank you, Professor," Teddy thanked her with relief.

"Can you just not mention this to the other Professors?" Mel asked and I nodded.

"Alright," she agreed.

 **Like I said, reviewing isn't very hard. Leave one to tell me if you like my story please.**


	14. Slug Club

**MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I hope you had a great day. Here is my gift to you, the next chapter. And I don't ask for much in return, just a little review like the one DSCWin gave me.**

Not long after the McGonagall incident, we were still waiting for her to inform us on the trip to the Ministry we were planning. She'd written a letter to them and promised to let us know the moment they replied. So of course we were still waiting, but we were going on with our lives at the same time.

I earned Slytherin ten points for designing the best map in Astronomy and my dorm mate James earned us another twenty for being the first one to master the Smokescreen Spell. But I was awfully proud of Mel, because she finally managed to transfigure her mouse into a Snuffbox. We'd been practising for ages together in the library and she was so happy. It was obvious that McGonagall also shared her excitement. Janet got a D on her History of Magic essay about Emeric the Evil while I got an E. Guess who was jealous of who. Dominic and Zaria had ended up with another detention for using the Sardine Hex on a Ravenclaw.

January had come to an end, February was halfway done and I soon came to the realisation that exams were less than half a year away. That meant that we had to start revision according to Teddy, who was a year older. And that certainly freaked me out. No one was ready for revision, except James who spent his time rereading our textbooks in the dorm.

I tried to drag Janet and Danus to the library one day, but I only managed to get Janet there and then she wasn't even trying to study. A letter came from her parents though which said that they were expecting good grades from her. After that, she was the one dragging _me_ to the library.

One day at Potions, Slughorn walked into the classroom looking very cheerful. "Good day everyone," he said as he made his way to his cauldron "We are going to have an excellent lesson today, but I would like to ask Miss Andrews, Mr. Candon, Mr. Odny, Miss Morcroff, Mr. Novak, Miss Zine and Mr. Rush to remain in class for five minutes after the lesson is over."

Janet and I cringed and I'm sure Dominic and Mel did the same. There was only one reason he would be holding the seven of us back, his Slug Club. I'd hoped Professor Snape wouldn't allow him to keep having meetings but he must have given in to his constant nagging.

The lesson today was about dittany. Slughorn explained that Dittany is a magical plant. It is a powerful healing herb and also restorative. I took notes on everything he said.

"Who could tell us about the effect of Dittany on a wound?" he asked and several hands rose. He looked over them trying to decide who to pick. "Mr. Novak," he said.

"Its use makes fresh skin grow over a wound, and after application, the wound seems several days old," said Dominic.

"Excellent," Slughorn congratulated him and even clapped "You take after your mother. You may know the most famous potion this ingredient is used in is Essence of Dittany. And who can tell us what colour Essence of Dittany is? Miss Bumis."

"It's brown, sir," said Lyra Bumis.

"Correct," Slughorn confirmed "Now, Dittany grows on Dicte, a mountain in Crete. Crete is the biggest island of Greece. The name of the plant, Dittany, comes from the Ancient Greek word δίκταμνον, supposedly Δικτή, meaning Dicte…"

He went on about the plant and then talked to us about Essence of Dittany. Its ingredients are three ounces of Blended Dittany Extract, which is a combined mix of White Dittany and Cretan Dittany oils, Copper and four Pickled Shrake Spines. It sounded interesting, but we weren't allowed to brew it until we had reached a specific level of potion making, which we hadn't reached yet.

The dreaded time came when the lesson ended. Nearly everyone left. Us select few were putting our books in our bags slowly, trying to prolong the time until Slughorn talked to us. But Nicolas Rush, a Gryffindor, didn't seem to mind at all. He looked like he was looking forward to talking to Slughorn about his amazing aunt. He was the first to walk to his side, nose pointing to the ceiling as he walked. I couldn't give a better example of snobbish behaviour.

"Professor Snape has given me permission to hold a small feast for my Club," he said proudly "I would like you all to attend. We will have a lovely talk and I will have the elves prepare their best food for us. See you tonight and don't eat too much at dinner."

We left the classroom. I was so excited about this party. Not! This was going to be just like the Christmas Eve feast but with more people. More people meant more stories and more stories meant more time and more time would lead me to kill myself. I'm sure Slughorn wouldn't want me to die, and after all I am destined to save us from the evilest wizard of all times. If I died we would be doomed and Slughorn would _most certainly_ not like that.

Next period was History of Magic. Binns didn't even realise what day or what time it was, he just kept teaching. We'd spent three lessons already talking about Emeric the Evil, but he still kept going about him. I don't even know why I tried to concentrate. After ten minutes I gave up and fell asleep, just like Janet had. Mel and James were still the only ones paying attention, but Mel confessed that she found herself falling asleep halfway through the lesson as well.

Flitwick had us practise all of the charms we had learned this year at the start of the lesson. To my relief, I found that I could perform all of them correctly except for the Locking charm. I still needed to practice that as I kept saying "Colloportus," and waving my wand around but nothing happened until what seemed like the hundredth attempt. The Professor said that the next lesson was going to be about the Mending charm. That was good news because Marius had taught it to me some nights ago in the common room.

In Defence, Kettleburry was trying to reassure us that exams weren't going to be too difficult and that all we had to do was remember everything we had done this year. She was being positive, but I was still freaked out. She went on to talk about Fire crabs.

That was our last lesson of the day. It would have usually made me happy, but today it meant that we had to go to the Slug Club.

I tried eating as much as I could at dinner thinking that if I ate too much here and then too much at the feat I would end up sick and have to leave early. Janet said that she would rather not be getting sick so she and Dominic didn't follow my tactic.

We got to his office the same time as Mel and Nicolas Rush who had come together from the Gryffindor tower. We had had ten minutes after dinner to get ready. We knocked on the door and Slughorn opened it, greeting us with a large smile. Some other students including Teddy were there already. I tried to find Liam, Charlotte or Rey but they must not be members of the club. Lucky them.

We took our seats at the big round table. I was sitting between Mel and a fourth year Ravenclaw named Shane Celther. The last one to arrive was James. He scooted quietly over to the last remaining seat next to Rush.

I didn't get sick because apparently my body had had enough time to digest my dinner. As we were eating, Slughorn would ask everyone questions.

"Tell me, Nicolas," he asked Rush "How is your aunt?"

"Better than ever," Rush answered as if the two of them were old friends "She's still on the team and she believes that she might even become Captain. You see, their current Captain caused a huge mess a few months ago and Auntie Helen turned out to be the one who solved it. And not only that, she also fixed the team's whole reputation. So naturally we're expecting her to replace the Captain since he's not capable of handling seven people. Auntie Helen guaranteed me a spot on the team myself after she's Captain and I'm old enough to join. She says I'm gifted."

Rush had been using his hands while he talked so much that he almost knocked James off of his seat a few times. We chuckled a bit at that, but James seemed very uncomfortable whenever Rush so much as touched him. That was what caused me and some others to stop laughing.

"Fascinating," commented Slughorn "And you, Shane. I hear your grades are excellent. What are your parents saying?"

"They are proud," Shane Celther told him "But they have to send me letters asking what they mean." Slughorn laughed.

"You see children," he said to the rest of us "Shane is a Muggleborns and yet somehow managed to be the top of his year. Now isn't that remarkable?" I had to admit I was quite surprise that a Mudblood could manage that. I saw Mel scowl and Shane looked something between embarrassed and offended.

"Mr. Odny," the potions master addressed me to my surprise "I am sorry that I cannot ask you about your parents, but how is the rest of your family doing?"

"Very well, sir," I said, even though I didn't even know if what I was saying was true.

"I'm glad to hear," he said "It is a big family indeed the Odnies. I remember having your ancestors as students. Tell me, has your grandmother changed much?"

"Not at all, sir," I said smiling. Mel all but started laughing and I kicked her under the table. She kicked me back and we started doing that until our feet eventually hurt. By that time, Slughorn had talked to some others.

"Miss Andrews I believe your parents haven't been too busy at the Auror office," he said to Mel at some point by which we were no longer kicking each other.

"You're quite right," she said "There aren't many dark wizards around anymore."

"But I hear you had Christmas with Harry Potter," this made me wonder how he knew that "So that meant that you were with Teddy as well?"

"Well, yes," Teddy answered.

"Oh how wonderful," Slughorn exclaimed "That must mean you are friends."

"We are," Teddy said. "In case you hadn't worked it out already, since we hang out together," he added so that only Mel and I would hear him.

"And Mr. Candon," Slughorn caused James to look up from his food "How is your father? I haven't heard from him in a while. It's a pity really."

"He's alright," James answered in a small voice, almost like he wanted no one to notice him.

"He hasn't been very involved in anything lately," Slughorn continued "And at first I thought it was because he was getting over his wife's death, but it's been years now. How old were you when she died?"

James seemed to shudder at the mention of his mother. I turned to look at him and he appeared to be devastated, he must have known her. I could relate to that, I remembered my parents as well and knew it was hard to lose them when you had memories of them. But I didn't know his mother had died. Come to think of it, I didn't know anything about him other than his name and House.

"Four years old," he said even quieter than before.

 **Slughorn is really annoying to me, what about you? I just think he doesn't respect privacy. Give me a Christmas present by reviewing please and maybe tell me if you got your Christmas wish. I love you all!**


	15. Gryffindor vs Slytherin

**Thanks Guest reviewer for commenting on my last chapter. Also, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you all have a great 2017. Any New Year's resolutions? I am interested to know. Mine are to finally read Divergent and to become a vegetarian.**

I was surprised. Did James really have a dead mother? Maybe that's why he doesn't talk a lot to anyone. But I had two dead parents and I had still managed to make many friends. Who knows? Mel, Teddy and some other guests looked at him sadly. Diana Zine offered him a smile, but Slughorn seemed quite fascinated.

"And how did she die again?" he asked. This made me hate him even more. Did he have no sympathy for James?

"She was sick," my dorm mate answered. He looked down, not meeting anyone's eyes.

"I saw my cousin Abigail last week," said a sixth year Hufflepuff boy, obviously trying to change the subject.

"That's lovely," Slughorn said to her, which meant she had succeeded "How is she?"

"Very well," said the Hufflepuff.

The meeting went on for about another half hour and then Slughorn finally let us go to bed. I wanted to talk to James, maybe just make him feel better, but he rushed to the dormitory and when I got there myself, he had closed the drapes around his bed.

When I saw him the next morning he was already dressed and leaving the room. I decided to not talk to him in classes or anything and like that I completely forgot all about the incident that had occurred at the Slug Club party.

* * *

On February 13, there was another Quidditch game. Ravenclaw had played against Gryffindor earlier in the year and had lost and then Slytherin had played against Hufflepuff and won. I kind of felt bad for Teddy, but our Seeker rocked. It was sad she was leaving and we would have to get a new one who will be just as good. Now, Gryffindor was playing Slytherin. This meant that for a few hours Mel and I were going to be enemies, each one of us supporting our own House.

Everyone was excited about the match. I had to admit that the Gryffindor team was okay, but not as good as ours. We could easily beat them. And I really hoped we could win the House Cup, though many complained that Slytherin had been winning it repeatedly for a very long time. I don't see what was wrong about that. If they deserved it of course they should win it.

The morning of the match Mel gave me a dark look at the Great Hall before winking. I giggled and copied her. At the breakfast table everyone was talking to the team and wishing them good luck. Janet pulled me over to them to do the same.

"Good luck in the game," she said.

"I'm sure you'll win," I added.

"Thanks," said the team Captain, Alexander Day.

"We'll beat those Lions, don't you worry!" said Cleo Brushwick and smiled brightly at us.

I think I actually ate my food too quickly out of excitement. Very smooth, Danny. Because of my wonderful idea I got a stomach ache and went to the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey said that we had to get less excited over silly things and gave me a potion which took action immediately, something I was thankful for.

When Janet, who had come with me, and I got to the Quidditch Field, Zaria said that the game had only just started and we hadn't missed anything. That was a good thing, because on our way to Madam Pomfrey, Janet swore she would kill me if I made us miss the game.

"Good day," we heard the voice of Ed Boyd "Welcome to yet another Quidditch match. Today it will be Gryffindor versus Slytherin. All of you supporting Gryffindor say 'yay'." More than half the stadium rose from their seats and cheered. How dare they?

"All of you supporting Slytherin say 'yay'," said Ed. We got up and cheered for our team.

"Yeah well, I'm supporting the Gryffs," he said.

"Mr. Boyd!" McGonagall yelled at him so loud that it was heard through the mic.

"Sorry Professor," he apologised "So let's greet the amazing Gryffindor team!"

"Mr. Boyd!"

"So the team is… Captain Samuel Wither, Chasers Erica Colt, John Quozzle and Eon Plank, Beaters Mercury Olivers and Anna Moon, Keeper Martha Ranchester and Seeker Samuel Withers." The Gryffindors flew out on their brooms wearing their red cloaks and did a couple of summersaults in the air.

"And now the Snakes," said Ed "Captain Alexander Day, Chasers Alexander Day, Melody Bluebird and Robyn Malkor, Beaters Milo Banshins and Hydrus Boxer, Keeper Jasmine Wetherell and Seeker Cleo Brushwick." My friends and I gave the team the loudest clap as they whooshed past the crowd, their emerald robes blowing in the wind.

"Madam Hooch explains the rules," said the broadcaster "Both teams have to agree to play fair and by the rules. The Captains shake hands. The Bludgers and the Snitch are released. Madam Hooch throws the Quaffle and the game begins!

"Colt is in possession of the Quaffle. She flies towards the Slytherin hoops with Bluebird and Day hot on pursuit. She doesn't seem to care much. Uh oh, Bluebird is moving closer. I think you should care now, Colt. She looks for someone from her team to give the Quaffle to. Bang! That was the moment of distraction Day needed to steal it from her.

"Slytherin now has the Quaffle. Day passes it to Bluebird who was next to him. Colt is still in shock, but Plank has taken over, flying towards the Snakes. He is fast, but Bluebird is faster. She passes the Quaffle to Malkor who has been waiting by the Gryffindor hoops all this time. She shoots it at the hoop… And it's ten points to Slytherin!"

We cheered and called out Robyn Malkor's name. The Chaser did a victory loop on her broom. It was a very interesting technique that the team had used, leaving her waiting by the hoops. That way if some other Slytherin had been close and had the Quaffle, they would easily throw it to her and she could score.

"Gryffindor has the Quaffle now," continued Ed "Quozzle just dodged a Bludger shot by Banshins, but it was a close one. He passes the Quaffle to Colt who is back in the game. Bluebird is pursuing her. Moon shoots a Bludger at Bluebird but Merlin! It just hit Colt straight on the chest.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Erica Colt has been knocked off her broom and apparently passed out by one of her own teammates. This is not a good day for the Gryffindor team.

"It seems though that the team has now got a feeling of proving their worth, as Chaser Eon Plank grabbed the Quaffle after Colt's fall just before Bluebird could. He flies across the field with the Slytherins following him, but he manages to pass the Quaffle to Quozzle. Quozzle takes it to the hoops and is aiming left. But he shoots right just as Keeper Wetherell tries to defend the left hoops. That means ten points for Gryffindor and the two teams are tied.

"Meanwhile Chaser Erica Colt has been removed from the Quidditch field by Madam Pomfrey and moved to the Hospital Wing. A heated argument took place between the two Gryffindor Beaters, but it appears the tension has disappeared now and we can resume the game.

"Quozzle takes the Quaffle, but Day knocks into him and steals it. Quozzle is yelling at Madam Hooch that it was a foul. Our dear Professor seems to think that it wasn't. That means that we can go on with our lives. Olivers' Bludger hits Day on the hand. That's interesting. The Bludger does not harm him, only sets him out of course and he dropped the Quaffle. Way to go, Olivers! Quozzle has the Quaffle back. He passes it to Plank. Plank aims at the hoops and throws it. Ah, he misses.

"Slytherin Keeper Wetherell has caught the Quaffle. She throws it to Malkor, but Plank flies in front of him and catches it himself. He takes aim again and bam! The Quaffle goes straight through the hoop. Another ten points for Gryffindor.

"What's this? Samuel Wither made a dive. Has he seen the Snitch already? Cleo Brushwick doesn't make a move though. Oh, now I see why. Wither made a bluff to confuse her, but Brushwick wasn't fooled. I swear she's the only member of the Slytherin team I admire."

"Mr. Boyd!"

"Sorry Professor," said Ed not sounding sorry at all "So after this attempted bluff, Wither returns to the sky…"

I couldn't believe we were losing. Gryffindor was only playing with two Chasers and we still ha three, shouldn't it be easier for the Slytherins? At least Cleo hadn't fallen for that bluff or she might have been too distracted to actually find the Snitch.

Gryffindor scored another ten points not too long after. "What's wrong with you, Wetherell?" yelled some Slytherin boy who was sitting behind me. I may as well say that he yelled it in close proximity to my ear. Janet's ear as well, as she was sitting next to me.

"Meeting you was a curse," she joked.

Finally, Jasmine Wetherell blocked the Quaffle from entering a hoop. This sucked. The score was now 50 to 10 and only finding the Snitch would save us.

Not more than ten minutes later, Alexander Day gave us another point. We were now 50 to 20, still not good enough, but closer.

And then, it happened. I saw Cleo dive.

She dived towards the top right corner of the stadium the way I saw it. Everyone was now on edge because this meant that the game would end and whoever caught the Snitch would define the winner. Withers followed her lead and they were diving down, neck to neck, heading for the ground. Withers had obviously not seen the Snitch himself as you could see him looking around for it, but he was doing whatever Cleo was doing in hopes of getting to it first.

But just as they were about to hit the ground, Cleo turned her broom and zoomed past Withers to the bottom right corner. The Gryffindor crashed into the ground. Cleo then pulled her broom up into the sky and held up her left hand. Inside was a fluttering golden ball.

Just like Withers had done before, she had bluffed and distracted him, but she had actually caught the Snitch.

We had won.

 **Another Quidditch chapter so I hope you didn't mind. Please review. Constructive criticism is also welcome. :)**


	16. A Letter From The Ministry

**The amazing DSCWin reviewed once again. Love yaa! This chapter is one I've been really excited about so I hope you enjoy it, it's where all the action starts ;) Also sorry I didn't update yesterday. I know that my update day is Sunday, but yesterday was my last day of Christmas holidays and I had other things to do (AKA study Byzantine history *throws up*). Yeah well, that's what you get when you leave revision for the last minute. But on a happier note I'm not going to school tomorrow because of snow so if any of you do decide to review I will be here to chat with you if you want to.**

Our victory gave our House the excitement we needed. After that, just like magic, we started going better in our classes and we earned so many points. Even Zaria got twenty points. I was so happy and I thought, _'This is it, we can actually win the House Cup.'_ We were all excited and even more ambitious than we were before.

But tell me, how many times that someone gets excited have you heard that it lasts?

For me, it was until that morning on March 2nd.

While at breakfast, the owl post came. I didn't have a problem with that, I just never got any mail so I didn't even bother to search for Azriel. And then while I was drinking my pumpkin juice, something fell on my head. I picked it up and then looked to the ceiling. To my surprise, my black owl was flying over me. What he had dropped on my head was a letter. I opened the envelope and found some parchment with a note written in handwriting I had only seen once before in my life, and that was on my Acceptance Letter.

 _Mr. Odny, Miss Andrews and Mr. Lupin,_

 _Immediately after breakfast, come to my office. A letter has arrived from the Ministry of Magic which concerns you. I will send a note to your Professors telling them that you may miss all of your classes today. Please come as soon as possible._

 _Professor McGonagall._

 _P.S. The password to my office is Etheric._

After reading the letter, my first instinct was to look at the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables. Mel and Teddy were both holding a letter like mine in their hands and we were all staring at each other. It was quite creepy if you ask me.

"Call the Daily Prophet," Dominic said enthusiastically "Danny's got a letter!"

"No shit, Sherlock," I said and pulled said letter out of his grasp as he made a move to take it.

"Who's it from?" Danus asked.

"No one," I answered and just as I said it realised what a stupid thing I'd said.

"Danny we can see your letter," said Zaria "You can't pretend it doesn't exist."

"It's private," I corrected myself.

"Can you at least tell us who sent it to you?" Danus urged me.

"Just leave him alone," Janet came to my defence "If he doesn't want to tell you about it, he doesn't have too."

"Sorry, your Majesty," Marius said to her and got up to take a bow. My friends forgot about the letter then and we all burst out laughing. When I looked up I saw Mel looking at me as if saying, "Let's go!" I excused myself and left the table.

We met just outside the Great Hall. Teddy came not long after clutching his letter. "You got them too, didn't you?" he asked nervously.

I nodded. "What do we do now?" Mel asked.

"McGonagall said to meet her at her office," I said "So maybe we should meet her at her office."

Once again I wasn't making any sense, basically because I was just as nervous as my two best friends. A letter had come from the Ministry of Magic. That letter concerned us or maybe even me. Did they know about me being Slytherin's descendant?

And that made me wonder why the Ministry was sending us a letter in the first place? The only grown up we'd talked to about this was McGonagall and we'd made her promise not to tell anyone else about it. If she had broken her promise, I don't even know what I would do to her.

"Let's start there," Mel agreed.

We walked to the Headmistress' office. In our anxiety, we almost forgot the password that she had given us and had to pull our letters out to remember it.

"Etheric," said Teddy and the gargoyle leapt aside, revealing the winding staircase.

We climbed up the stairs and soon found ourselves, for the second time this year, in Professor McGonagall's office. She was sitting behind her desk which reminded me that she hadn't been at the Great Hall for breakfast and was reading a letter, most likely the one that she had told us about.

"Please take a seat," she said and looked up, taking her glasses off.

We did as we were told and sat on the three chairs that were in front of her desk. She remained seated and looked surprisingly calm. "I believe you got my letters," she said "I contacted the Ministry of Magic…"

"What?!" I exclaimed. It was early to judge her, but then my mind didn't think of that because I had been suspicious of her breaking her promise throughout the whole walk to here. "You swore you wouldn't tell anyone!" I yelled at her.

"I promised you I wouldn't tell any of the other Professors," she corrected me.

"But you shouldn't have told the Ministry," Mel agreed with me.

"Miss Andrews and Mr. Odny please calm down so I can talk to you," she said sternly and that shut us up "I contacted the Ministry of Magic but told them nothing about Mr. Odny's identity. I only told them that I have three students who for a private reason wish to visit the Department of Mysteries. That was shortly after you came to me and I hadn't gotten a reply until now."

I think I stopped breathing then. If what McGonagall was saying was true that meant that we might have the chance to find that damn prophecy and finally have some idea about what to do in order to defeat Tolfazor. I was so anxious now to hear what the reply had been.

"They agreed," she said and I exhaled "The letter also came with a portkey which will take you there. It will activate in half an hour." She gestured towards a box which was on her desk. I got up from my seat to look inside and saw a length of rope. I remembered reading about portkeys in Janet's book, so I knew what we were supposed to do when it was activated.

"I suggest you wait here until it's time," McGonagall said and rose from her seat "If you will excuse me, I have classes to attend to. If you need anything, call for Topsy the house-elf. She will be more than happy to help you." She strode out of the room.

We just looked at each other for a good five minutes until Teddy said, "I could use a cup of tea."

"Me too," Mel said.

"Topsy," Teddy called out.

I heard a popping sound and then I saw a creature in front of us. This time, I knew exactly what it was. I had spent too much time reading Janet's book to not know that this was a house-elf. House-elves are basically like servants for wizards, but only rich ones owned them. I bet Janet's family had one or two and so would Danus' or Dominic's. I had guessed that Hogwarts had them as well and I had been right.

"What can Topsy do for you, sir?" asked the house-elf.

"We would just like some tea please," Teddy told her friendlily. That's odd. Why was he talking to a servant like that? He's supposed to command them, isn't he?

"Topsy will be right back, sir," Topsy promised and left the office just as she had entered it.

"She will take a long time now," I warned my Hufflepuff friend.

He looked confused. "Why?" he asked.

"You have to command them and be stern with them," I said and felt like I was talking to a child. Teddy was supposed to know this, he'd grown up around wizards.

"No you're not," Mel argued "House-elves have been mistreated for centuries. It doesn't make a difference what way you talk to them, they will do the job anyway."

"My aunt Hermione has a whole campaign about saving them," Teddy added.

"Oh," was all I could say. I guess that did make some sense.

And then a tray appeared on McGonagall's desk. On the tray was a white porcelain tea pot with rose patterns on it with three matching tea cups and saucers, a matching milk jug and sugar bowl. Each saucer had a little spoon on the side and there was a slightly bigger matching plate with biscuits on it.

Mel picked one up. "See," she said to me as she bit into it "She even brought us biscuits without us asking for them."

I laughed and picked up the tea pot, pouring some tea for all of us. I knew that Mel took hers with a spoonful of sugar. She always quoted that movie we'd watched when we were seven, Mary Poppins, and said, "Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down," whenever she drank tea. I took mine without sugar or milk, but I didn't know about Teddy, so I asked him.

"A spoonful of sugar and just a splash of milk, as my grandmother says," he told me.

He was very fussy about the splash of milk. He literally had to hold my hands while I was pouring it so I would get exactly the right amount. I rolled my eyes and I saw Mel giggle into her tea cup.

As we were sipping our tea and eating biscuits, I noticed on the clock that was on McGonagall's wall that we had less than five minutes until the portkey was activated. I felt a mixture of feelings, excitement, anxiety, fear... Did the wizards at the Ministry know what we wanted to do? Will they be suspicious as to why we took a prophecy? I tried to put those feelings aside as we put our cups on the tray and pulled the rope out of the box. We each gripped a bit of it tightly and stared at each other until we felt like we were squeezed into a tight tube.

The whole ride was very, very unpleasant. When we landed the first thing I thought was, _'I need to throw up.'_ Luckily I didn't. But then I looked around and thought, _'Where are we?'_ because we surely weren't in the Ministry of Magic.

We were lying down after collapsing during our landing. I felt the ground and it was a grassy texture. It was dark around us and we were in a dark forest. I wondered why it was so dark, it had still been morning when we left Hogwarts. I soon saw why, the tress of this forest were so tall and so massive that they were literally covering the sun.

I looked at Mel and Teddy and they seemed as shocked as I was. Mel pulled out her wand. "Lumos," she said and the tip of the wand lit up. Teddy and I copied her.

"Where are we?" she asked as we looked around.

"I don't know," I answered.

We heard a stick crack and jumped. It proved to be Teddy who had simply stepped on one. Part of me wanted to yell at him for scaring the shit out of me, while the other part just wanted to get the hell out of here! Teddy was the one to point out some bushes and we rushed to hide behind them. In a spooky place like this, who knew what could jump out of nowhere and attack you?

As soon as we were behind the bushes, Mel instantly clung to my robes. I wanted to tease her about being a Gryffindor and being scared, but could I really when I was just as terrified as she was. We didn't know where we were and we had no way to get back to school. Someone had obviously trapped us, sending a fake letter that was supposed to be from the Ministry of Magic.

"I'm going to go check it out," Teddy whispered and turned his wand light off.

"Don't you dare!" Mel said as loudly as she could but still be whispering.

"Someone has to go," the Hufflepuff argued.

"I'm coming with you," Mel told him.

I was about to tell them that I was going to go as well, but Teddy spoke before I could. "Melena Andrews," he said to her "I am one year older than you and I know more defensive spells than you do. I'll be alright."

"You're not an Auror, Edward Remus Lupin," Mel said, making me feel as if two siblings were arguing "If something dangerous is out there, you won't be able to fight it."

"I can fight it better than you can. I will go out there, look around and maybe find out where we are. Then I will come back and hopefully know how to get back to Hogwarts."

"He's right, Mel," I said. I didn't want to put my friend in danger, but he had a point. No one was here now and it seemed quite safe.

Mel still didn't seem convinced. "Alright," she said biting her lip.

"Just stay hidden," Teddy warned us as he stepped out of our hiding place.

The bushes were located near a small clearing which looked like the place evil attacks. I so did not like the thought of being there, what's more, my friend walking straight into it.

And then out of nowhere two men appeared. One of them was taller than the other and had dark hair and brown eyes. The other was the scariest thing I had ever seen. He had matted grey hair and whiskers, pointed teeth and long yellowish nails. He looked like the drawings of werewolves in Muggle books. For all I know, he could be one. This is the wizarding world after all.

I was going to yell at Teddy, but the tall one grabbed him by his shirt before I could do anything.

"Well, well, well," he said with an evil smirk on his face "What have we got here? Looks like someone decided to skip school."

Teddy was trying to use his wand, but it had fallen to the ground when the man grabbed him.

"We've been waiting for you, Odny," said the other one.

Crap! They were after me and they found Teddy. They thought it was me. What if they hurt him or even killed him because they thought it was me?

"W-what?" Teddy said, almost paralysed with fear by now.

"You're not Odny?" the tall one asked "But how did… Wait," he paused and leaned closer to my friend's face. After a few seconds he let out a horrible laugh. "I know those eyes," he said, smiling wickedly "Not personally, but I saw a lot of them on your father after I killed him."

Teddy's face paled while his hair turned an angry red colour. "Antonin Dolohov," he said.

 **Dun dun DUUUUUUUUUUN! See, told you ;)**


	17. Danger

**Do I even need to thank you anymore, DSCWin? Also, can I say that you guys are awesome! Seriously this story had 237 views last month. Thank you so much!**

"It's a pity Bellatrix isn't here," said Dolohov as he threw Teddy to the ground "She can't see what a scum her niece created."

Teddy crawled to his wand and picked it up. I wanted nothing more than to go out there and help him, but he kept giving us that stay-where-you-are look and trying not to expose us at the same time. "Stupefy," he said and a red light shot out of his wand towards Dolohov. The older man easily dodged it and pulled out his own wand.

"Crucio," he said and Teddy let out a scream before falling to the ground again.

Mel gripped my hand and I squeezed it. I wished someone would come and save us.

Teddy stopped screaming and Dolohov approached him. Teddy lifted his wand and said, "Expelliarmus." Dolohov's wand flew out of his hand, but he didn't seem to mind at all.

"Very good, Lupin," he said "Very good." He walked over to him and stood above him. "Now tell me," he told him "Where is Odny?"

"I don't know," Teddy lied.

"You came in the portkey that was meant to bring Odny," Dolohov pressed him "You must be hiding him."

"I don't know," Teddy repeated. I caught him throwing a quick look in the direction of the portkey as if hoping someone would appear from there.

"Don't have too much hope," said Dolohov who had also noticed "This portkey has a charm on it that will send it back to your school soon. There's no escape."

This sounded bad. I mean, we were trapped, but at the same time it made me think that we had a chance of leaving. If we could save Teddy and get to the portkey in time, we would get back to Hogwarts safe and sound.

"But if you tell me how to find Odny, I will let you go," Dolohov continued "How does that sound?"

"Go to hell," Teddy actually had the courage to say. I had never heard him swear before, but he was being interrogated by the man who killed his father. Had it been me, I would have been just as upset.

Dolohov apparently didn't like that answer though. The other man tossed him his wand and he caught it. He pointed it at Teddy and said the same spell, more like curse, he had used earlier, "Crucio."

I made a note to never use that curse, not even if my life depended on it. Just seeing one of my friends screaming in pain and looking like he was having seizures was enough to leave scars and make me want to forget I had ever learned about it. When Dolohov lifted the curse, Teddy was panting.

"I will ask you one last time," Dolohov said menacingly "Where. Is. Odny?"

"Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you," Teddy said and surprised me with his courage. What was he doing in Hufflepuff?

"Alright then," Dolohov said and stepped back. After everything I'd seen, I didn't trust him to let Teddy go. He was planning something with that other guy, I could tell.

"The kid's no use to us," he said to the hairy man "He's all yours, Fen."

The man who had just been addressed as Fen smiled, revealing sharp wolf-like teeth. "Oh my God," Mel breathed next to me "That's Fenrir Greyback."

And then right in front of our eyes, Greyback transformed into a wolf. That was all the proof I needed to know that he was even more dangerous than Dolohov and that he was a werewolf.

He lunged towards Teddy who seemed paralysed by fear. The next things are still a blur in my mind. I remember seeing Greyback biting into Teddy's left side and then two screams, Teddy's scream of pain and Mel's scream of fear.

Immediately both Dolohov and Greyback turned towards our bushes. I knew we had been seen, there was no point hiding anymore. I tightened my grip on my wand and jumped out of the bushes, Mel following me. Greyback dropped Teddy's body to the ground. I wanted to go and help him, but we had to get rid of the two wizards first.

I tried to copy the movement Teddy had done and said, "Stupefy." I didn't know what would happen since Dolohov had dodged it when he had cast it. A red light shot out of my wand and hit Greyback in the chest. The wolf was knocked of his feet and thrown against a tree with a yelp. At least the spell had worked.

"Expelliarmus," Mel said and Dolohov once again lost his wand. Those two seriously underestimated young wizards in training.

Dolohov must have understood that he was useless without his wand, so he started looking for it. Greyback seemed dazed and was slumped against a tree. We saw out chance and we took it. We ran to Teddy who was bleeding where the werewolf had bitten him and wheezing. Mel took his right arm and I took his left. The moment we pulled him up he cried out.

I hadn't been so scared in all my life. My friend was most likely dying in front of me and I couldn't help him. Mel and I were trying not to think of the possibility of him not surviving. We didn't even have to talk to know what to do, we just ran as fast as we could while carrying Teddy to the portkey. I didn't look back because I didn't want to see if Dolohov had found his wand or if Greyback was pursuing us, I just kept running. But when we reached the rope, I couldn't help it. Dolohov was still searching, but Greyback had turned into a man again. He was looking at us and when our eyes met, he started running.

I grabbed the rope as tightly as I could and held Teddy tighter. Even in the darkness, I could see that his skin was turning white. We needed to get him to Madam Pomfrey fast. I wished that the portkey was going to work and take us back to Hogwarts now because Greyback was almost in front of us. Right when I thought that all three of us were dead I felt like I was being squeezed into a tube.

We landed on our faces, causing Teddy to cry out. Now with the lighting I could see exactly how bad he looked. His face was white and there was blood everywhere. His eyes were glossy with pain and tears. I hadn't noticed he was crying before. His Hogwarts robes were ruined and the black only highlighted his paleness. He tried to say something, but ended up coughing up blood instead.

"It's alright," Mel said as she too started to cry "We'll get you to Madam Pomfrey and you'll be fine."

"Yeah, man," I said and felt my eyes burning "Everything will be alright." Who was I trying to comfort, him, Mel or myself? All of us?

We were in McGonagall's office, far from the Hospital Wing. I looked around trying to find a way to transport, but Mel was faster. She had run to the fireplace and I didn't really have a choice but not to follow her as we were holding the same person. She found a small cup-like object which was filled with the powder she had used the day she had taken me to Diagon Alley. Of course, how could I have forgotten? Mel picked up some floo powder and threw it into the fireplace. We jumped in as she said, "Hospital Wing."

We ended up in the Hospital Wing's fireplace. No one else was there except Madam Pomfrey. She turned around when she heard the floo and jumped when she saw us. "What happened?" she asked.

"It was a werewolf," said Mel.

Madam Pomfrey took out her wand and looked at Teddy's wounds. She seemed to be at a loss as to where to begin and honestly, if I was her, I would have been too. When Teddy coughed up another mouthful of blood I think she reached her breaking point. "I can't," she said "The wound is too complex. You have to take him to St Mungo's."

"Why can't _you_ heal him?" I asked her because I was afraid Teddy might not even make it to St Mungo's.

"A werewolf bite requires special treatment, Mr. Odny," she told me.

I wasn't going to press her anymore because we couldn't risk losing more time. "Let's just go," I told Mel.

That girl is amazing. She had actually kept just a bit of floo powder for an emergency. She threw it into the fireplace and we rushed in. "St Mungo's Hospital," she said.

We left the Hogwarts Hospital Wing and appeared at what seemed like the front desk of a hospital only with a magic twist. There were some other wizards in the queue in front of us. The second trip had worn Teddy out and he was all but passed out. There was no way we were waiting in the queue. I asked Mel if there was something like an emergency entrance. She nodded and led the way.

We were basically headed towards the same desk where the queue was, but to another witch. She had brown hair and eyes and was playing with her wand. She looked quite zoned out and I thought _'She's the one who's supposed to help us?'_ because if she was, how did she even know her name?

"Um…" I said to her "Hello."

She jumped and looked at us. "Good day children," she said "What can I do for you?"

What were we doing talking to her? We were carrying a bleeding and probably dying Teddy for Merlin's sake and she was asking us what we wanted to do.

"This is only for emergencies," she said after that and I wanted to slap her so she could see properly.

"Our friend was bitten by a werewolf," Mel said.

"Oh," said the witch. Her eyes fell upon Teddy and I saw disgust in them. If she had seemed reluctant to help us before, she certainly did now. I'm not gonna lie, I thought she was going to leave him there and not even call a Healer.

"You should go to the first floor," she said and squirmed in her seat, trying to get as far away from us as possible "It's all about Creature-Induced Injuries."

"We're supposed to carry him all that way?" I asked her. My arms and shoulders were killing me from carrying Teddy but that wasn't what I was thinking of. I looked down at him and he looked about to die. His blood was dripping on the floor and he looked as pale as a ghost. Trust me, I've seen ghosts. And the bitch at the desk seemed to be more concerned about the floor.

"We won't take him ourselves," she said "He could attack us on the way."

"Attack you?" I cried causing some people to look at us "He's almost dead!"

"We can't take risks," she pressed.

"Alright then," I yelled "You know what? We'll carry Teddy all the way to the first floor and find a Healer to tend to him. And if he dies before we manage it, I'll fucking sue you!"

Everyone was looking at us by now. Some of them seemed as shocked as the witch at the desk, some were neutral and a few of them seemed quite impressed. I ignored their looks and proceeded to help Mel carry Teddy towards the stairs. The moment we had gone up one step, he let out a moan of discomfort. I looked at Mel as if saying, "What are we going to do?"

She shrugged and then leaned down so she could talk to Teddy. "You can do it," she said to him "There's only a few more steps left. We'll be there soon."

And that's how the rest of the climb went. Every few steps Teddy wouldn't have the strength to continue and we would tell him that we were almost there, even though it wasn't really true. Each time was worse than the last and I always thought that he wasn't going to make it any further. We would have taken the lift, but it was too full and we couldn't wait for the next one. Time was chasing us.

Finally we made it. A Healer who seemed friendlier than the one at the emergency desk was just walking across the corridor opposite us. "We need help!" I said as loudly as I could in hopes of her hearing me. Luckily she did. She had blond hair, brown eyes and was wearing a long white robe that reached her ankles. She turned around and ran to us.

"What happened?" she asked. At least she actually cared.

"He was bitten by a werewolf," Mel said "Just look after him, please! We promise he's not going to hurt you." She was just as upset as I was with that witch and with everything else, she was very tense.

"Of course he's not," said the Healer and I breathed a sigh of relief "Here, I'll find him a bed."

Teddy chose that moment to start coughing and pass out as soon as the attack was over.

 **This is my first time writing angst so I hope it was good. Let me know.**


	18. Healers And Family

**I already know that DSCWin is so amazing that they will review every chapter! I have an idea, if you review this crappy chapter, I will check out your stories. It's not one of my best ones and I don't really like it, so I would like to see what you think.**

Healer Kim, the witch who had met us when we got to the first floor of St Mungo's took us to a room which had three beds in it. There was no one on any bed so she just placed Teddy on the one closest to the entrance. He was passed out now and the only sign that he was alive were his wheezing breaths.

"I'm sorry but I have a patient to tend to," said Healer Kim "But I will send someone immediately."

And she meant immediately. As soon as she was out of the room another Healer came in. He didn't look half as friendly as Healer Kim, but that didn't matter right now. He looked at Teddy and pulled out his wand. He did a couple of spells and the blood seemed to vanish. He then called another Healer and asked for some potions.

While that was happening Mel had broken down. She had had a few tears on her face, but now she was full on crying and sobbing. We sank into a chair that was near Teddy's bed and I held her. I couldn't help the few tears that escaped my eyes myself. This was not the time to play strong and manly or whatever.

The Healer gave Teddy some potions and did a couple more spells before removing his robes and bandaging his wound. It looked worse than what I thought it would. You could see the mark of every one of Greyback's teeth. Mel buried her face into my robes, her hair turning an ashy grey.

About half an hour later, the Healers had left and Mel and I had been left alone when two people walked, more like ran, into the room. One of them was a man around twenty. He had jet black hair, green eyes and was wearing round glasses. The other was an old woman with dark brown hair and dark eyes. After knowing Teddy for a whole year I could tell that the woman was his grandmother, but who was the other one?

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed when she walked in. She ran past us to Teddy's bedside and took his hand in hers.

The man looked at us. "You're Teddy's friends, right?" he asked us. We nodded.

"I'm Mel," Mel said, wiping her eyes on her sleeve and sniffled "This is Danny."

"Madam Pomfrey told us that you brought him here," he said "Thank you very much. I'm his godfather, Harry."

Oh. So this was the famous Uncle Harry. He seemed quite nice, but like I've mentioned before, I wasn't sure exactly how much I should trust him. I just nodded without saying anything.

"Who would do something like this?" Teddy's grandmother said and started crying.

"It was Fenrir Greyback," I said.

Both adults paled and looked at each other. I have the feeling they were thinking the same things. They decided to share them with us though.

"I think we should have a talk," Harry said "First of all, I suggest you get a subscription to the Daily Prophet. Fenrir Greyback was one of the Death Eaters that broke out of Azkaban some weeks ago. We've been searching for them for a long time but we haven't found them yet. We only hoped we would be in time before something bad happened. Obviously we weren't. Teddy's father, Remus, was also a werewolf and the one who turned him was Greyback. Greyback must have tracked him down or something."

"No," I said "They were expecting to find me. They were looking for _me_ and now Teddy's in this huge mess."

"You?" Harry asked me "What would they want with you?"

"Professor McGonagall sent a letter to the Ministry asking if we could come and visit the Department of Mysteries," I explained "We got a letter back saying that we could. They must have found it and jinxed the portkey."

"What do you mean?" Harry seemed terribly confused "I work for the Ministry and we never got such a letter."

And that's how it was all explained. The letter McGonagall sent never reached the Ministry. The Death Eaters had found it and sent the reply pretending to be the Ministry of Magic, while they were actually trying to lure us into a trap.

"And why did you want to go to the Department of Mysteries in the first place?"

That was the question I'd hoped he wouldn't ask. Now we would have to explain everything to him.

"I promise we'll explain," Mel spoke up "But not now."

I heard a moan from my left and turned to see Teddy stirring. All our attention was now on him. His grandmother was squeezing his hand like she was begging him to open his eyes and let her know that he was alive.

Slowly, he woke up. He looked around and then his gaze fell upon his grandmother and godfather. He tried to say something, but he started coughing instead. I was afraid he was going to cough up more blood, but apparently it was because his throat was sore and he couldn't talk.

"Go get a Healer!" Harry told Mel. She got up and ran out of the room.

"Don't talk, Teddy," he said to his godson "Calm down. Everything's fine. You're alright."

Teddy was freaking out. He was shaking and coughing, but Harry and his grandmother managed to calm him down by the time Mel returned followed by a Healer. It was the same male Healer who had tended to Teddy before.

"I'm Healer Gregory," said the Healer, not even bothering to look at Teddy.

"Teddy woke up," Harry said to him.

Healer Gregory turned his head to shoot Teddy a look of disgust. "Oh, yes," he said "He has."

I looked at Mel. What was wrong with the wizards at this place? Why were they all acting so strange?

"So what should we do?" asked Teddy's grandmother.

"We'll look after him," said Healer Gregory "You wait outside."

We didn't really like that idea, but we might be forced to do so. As we were leaving, Teddy's grip on his grandmother's hand tightened. I looked at him and he looked sad and begging her to stay. It was obvious that she didn't want to leave him either.

"Please," she asked the Healer "I'm his grandmother. Can I stay with him?"

"Okay," he answered reluctantly.

We asked if we could stay as well and he gave a what-the-hell look before allowing us to do so.

Throughout the whole procedure I hoped Healer Kim would walk in, tell this guy off and look after Teddy herself. She would have at least been nicer and reassured him.

When they were done, they told us that Teddy would have to stay for a few more days until he was strong enough to leave. As much as we all wanted him out of this place as soon as possible, we knew that they were right.

"Teddy do you remember what happened?" Harry asked him when it was just us again.

Teddy nodded because he still couldn't talk and it hurt for him to swallow when he tried to have some water. Just after he nodded, it looked like realisation hit him and tears started dripping from his eyes onto the pillow. He tried to turn onto his side, but he pulled on his wound and hissed in pain.

"I'm so sorry, darling," said his grandmother, Andromeda, and kissed his forehead "You'll be fine. You'll see."

Andromeda, said that she was going to stay with him and then take him home. Apparently he was going to go through some tough times after this, but I hadn't gotten as far into Janet's book to know about werewolves and their bites and how long they took to heal.

Professor McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey and Teddy's Head of House came to visit him shortly after. McGonagall felt so bad for not realising that the letter had been fake and was actually crying, saying that it was her fault. Of course it wasn't. Those Death Eaters had set it up great and if it was anyone's fault, it certainly wasn't hers.

After they left the sun started to set. Teddy was asleep again. All this time he had been slipping in and out of consciousness and we had to wake him some times to get him to take a blood replenishing potion and once the Healer had to change his bandages. Luckily, this time it was Healer Kim and she was so nice and positive with him.

I yawned. It had been a very long day. Just this morning we had taken that portkey to the forest and now it felt like that was ages ago. After all of this I needed to rest and not wake up for two days. At least it was a Friday which meant that there was no school tomorrow.

When Mel started falling asleep as well we decided it was time to go. We didn't want to leave Teddy, but we couldn't stay. The Healers had already threatened to kick us out, claiming that visiting hours were over and only family was allowed now. We considered lying that we were his siblings, but we had already called him our friend many times.

On our way to the fireplace, I asked Mel something that had been bothering me for a while. "Mel, why does everyone act so strange around Teddy?"

She bit her lip. "You don't know about werewolves, do you?" she said and I shook my head "When a werewolf bites someone, its saliva mingles with the victim's blood and they are turned. Teddy was bitten by a werewolf and that means that he is also a werewolf now."

To say I was shocked was an understatement. Some hours ago Teddy was a normal wizard like me and in a matter of minutes, if not seconds, he had changed into something else.

"The wizarding world has a big prejudice against werewolves," Mel continued "Some believe that werewolves don't deserve to live. And apparently so do Healers."

We didn't talk anymore until we said our goodbyes before going to our common rooms. There were people in the common room, but I wasn't in the mood of talking to anyone. I snuck into the dorm in which only James was reading his book and crawled into my bed still in my robes.

 **I don't know why I wrote the Healers being so mean. It just happened. I don't know... 😐**


	19. Full Moon

Of course Janet, Danus, Marius, Zaria and Dominic wanted to know where I had been that whole day, but I couldn't tell them. They kept pressing me for answers, but when I finally snapped and yelled at them to stop annoying me, they stopped.

It was still a sensitive subject for me, what had happened. I wasn't sure how long it would take me to recover, but I needed more time.

Mel and I had barely spoken since then. We needed some time apart after that, even though the most logical thing would be to help and comfort each other. I just don't think we could handle it and required some time to process everything that had happened.

Of course Teddy wasn't at school. A letter came from his grandmother saying that he was out of the hospital but staying at home. The Easter Holidays were coming up anyway and with them his first full moon. She wanted to be with him for that.

Liam, Rey and Charlotte had no idea about what had happened. I had hoped that Teddy would write to them to let them know, but being a werewolf was a real curse in the wizarding world. Many wizards didn't accept them as humans and you never knew how someone would take the news of you being one. I guess that's why he hadn't told them yet. I just hoped he knew that they were good friends and would accept him anyway.

They had asked me and Mel about him many times because we were the last people he had been with before he 'disappeared'. Mel came up with some story about him getting sick and having to go home and had enough time to tell me about it before I was interrogated by the three Hufflepuffs.

As Thursday's Transfiguration class ended and we were about to leave, McGonagall said, "And Mr. Odny and Miss Andrews, I would like to see you for a moment."

I was with Janet and we were about to leave and we stopped. I looked at Mel who was just now starting to put her textbooks in her bag. She hurriedly put the rest of them in while Janet walked over to the entrance and leaned against the door frame, waiting for me.

" _Just_ Mr. Odny and Miss Andrews, Miss Morcroff," McGonagall told her and she rolled her eyes before leaving the classroom. That girl could get really sassy sometimes. Better not get on her bad side.

"As you two were the ones who were with Mr. Lupin when he was attacked," McGonagall told me and Mel when she was gone "I believe you already know the consequences." We nodded. "His first full moon experience is next week. I think that it would help him if you were with him."

I hadn't thought of that, but she was right. It would certainly be better than having to go through this all alone. Maybe he would feel better if Mel and I were there with him to support him. I know I would feel more comfortable.

"That would be nice, Professor," Mel said.

"You will travel to their house through the floo network," McGonagall said. She obviously didn't want to risk portkeys again. "Come to my office after classes on Friday. You are dismissed."

Mel and I didn't talk on the way to our next lesson, but I knew that we were both thinking the same. I was worried about Teddy. This couldn't be easy and I hated that he had to go through it. But what are friends for? Mel and I were going to be by his side and help him with everything, that's how strong our friendship is.

And to think that I didn't like the guy at the beginning of the year.

I had disliked him so much out of selfish reasons. Looking back at it, I was being a straight out dick. But then we had bonded over the fact that both our parents had been killed by Death Eaters and after that things had gone smoothly.

Just imagining what he must be going through… Part of me didn't want to go to his house on Friday because I didn't want to see how broken he was.

* * *

On Friday afternoon I told my friends that I was leaving again. "Just make sure no one disappears this time," Zaria said. It was a harmless joke, but it made me feel bad.

McGonagall hadn't changed the password to her office. Mel and I went inside. I felt like I've been in this office far too many times this year for it to be good.

"They are waiting for you," the Headmistress told us "I let Andromeda know that you were coming."

She showed us to the fireplace where we used the floo to get to Teddy's house.

We were greeted by his grandmother who had a look of grief on her face. "Welcome," she said, attempting to smile.

"Hello," I said. Mel was doing her best to look cheerful but I didn't know how that was going to help much.

"Teddy's in his room," Andromeda informed us "He slept through most of the day. Poor thing. He's had a fever since yesterday evening."

"Talking to us will make him feel better," Mel said.

"I hope so," Andromeda sighed "I'm worried about him."

' _Me too,'_ I thought but didn't dare say out loud.

Mel guided me up the stairs. She said she has been to Teddy's house a few times and she knows where his room is. I really want to talk to him because I'm positive we can make his day or take his mind off what's coming. Hopefully.

We stopped in front of a wooden door. It was painted blue, but it was obvious that the person who had painted it had been young. There were gaps and spots where you could see the brown wood.

"We painted it when I was five," Mel said, staring at it "When I was ten and Teddy was about to start Hogwarts we thought maybe we should repaint it, but it was the memories of the young us that wouldn't allow us to do it."

I would have knocked on the door, but she simply pushed it open like it was her own room.

Teddy was sitting on a chair behind his desk. He was zoned out, looking at a moving picture. Just like Andromeda had said, he didn't look very well. Mel and I walked over to him and stood behind him. I could get a glimpse at the picture he was holding now.

It was the picture of a man, a woman and a baby. The man had light brown hair which was also flecked with grey, something weird considering he looked quite young, green eyes and scars on his face. The woman had bright pink hair and dark twinkling eyes. She was holding the baby in her arms. Because the picture moved, you could see its hair changing colours every few seconds and its parents laughing with joy. That picture was of Teddy's family.

"Hi, Teddy," Mel said.

He looked up and put the picture on the desk in front of him. "Hi," he said, not even trying to sound cheerful. This was crushing him.

"I didn't know you were coming," he said.

"We wanted to be with you," I said "You know, after…"

He nodded. I didn't like how he wasn't talking. I thought about asking him how he was but stopped myself because I realised that that was the most stupid thing I could ask. So I said nothing.

"Do you want to do something?" Mel asked him.

He shook his head. "I'm fine, thanks," he said looking up at her.

"You're not fine, Teddy," I said before I could stop myself. Shit!

"You're right," he said "I'm not." And then without warning, he lurched over to the trash bin that was by his desk and threw up. Mel stared at me in shock.

"Andromeda!" she called out.

In only a matter of seconds, Teddy's grandmother was upstairs with us. When Teddy was done throwing up, she suggests he lies down and I can see why. If he was looking bad before, I don't know what he looked like now. He agreed. He was so tired he fell asleep the moment his head touched the pillow.

"He didn't get any sleep last night," Andromeda said as she moved some hair out of his face. She pressed a kiss to his forehead. They were so close, but that shouldn't really surprise me because they were literally all the family they had left.

We sat by his bed, just like that day at the hospital. This day reminded me of that one so tragically much.

No one spoke. We didn't have anything to say. Why didn't we have anything to say? Why couldn't we just say something and lighten our spirits? Could anything do that?

Teddy woke up. "Grandma," he said "Why did this happen to me?"

Andromeda pulled him into her arms. "Sometimes very bad things happen to very good people," she said rubbing his back.

"But why do they happen to _them_?" Teddy pressed.

"Because the world is a cruel place," his grandmother told him "And we all have to go through something."

The sun was starting to go down. It was time. We were all dreading this moment, Teddy more than any of us, but it had to happen. "Come on, sweetie," Andromeda told Teddy "Let's get you to the basement."

Once she said those words, Teddy started trying to get away from her. "No," he screamed "I don't want to do this! Please don't make me do this!"

It hurt all of us, but we didn't have a choice. We had to do this for his own safety. But was it really for his safety? He was only going to hurt himself down there. Was this really the best we could offer him?

Andromeda managed to carry him down the stairs, he was too weak to actually get away. You could see the pain this caused her in her eyes. She didn't want to do this to him. She opened the door to the basement and carried him down the stairs before coming back up and shutting and locking the door.

Just as soon as we hear the lock click, we hear Teddy banging against the door. "Please," he yelled "I don't want to. Let me out. Dad! I want my dad!"

He was cut off by a scream and then Andromeda cast a silencing charm on the door. A tear ran down her face. It was done. Now we just had to wait until the morning.

We decided to stay awake until the sun came up. Andromeda told us some fun stories of Teddy when he was a kid, ones that we could us to blackmail him with, and we had lots of tea. We talked about school a bit too. I think she wanted to tell us the nice stories about Teddy because that's what she wanted to think of now, that he was alright.

Staying awake was one of the most difficult things I'd done. There were times that I wanted nothing more than to close my eyes and go to sleep on the kitchen table and I could tell that both Mel and Teddy's grandmother were going through the same struggle, but we managed in the end.

The sun rose and it was both a relief and a worry. Relief because we had made it and worry because we would see what happened to Teddy.

Andromeda's hands were shaking as she unlocked the basement door. It was quiet. She walked down the stairs and we followed her. Teddy was lying unconscious in a corner, once again covered in blood. There were scratches and bite marks all over him and I wanted to throw up just by thinking that he had done this to himself.

Andromeda carried him out and began the spells to heal him. She was surprisingly calm. She looked like she knew what she was doing. "My daughter and I used to help Teddy's father after the full moons," she said "At least that way I know what to do now."

When Teddy came to he was kind of out of it, but we managed to cheer him up a bit. We told him some funny stories about things that had happened at school but I think that it helped him to know that he had done it.

 **We're near the end of this story. I hope you've liked it so far.**


	20. Harry

The Easter Holidays were nothing really. Some people just went home while others stayed at Hogwarts. We did lots of studying, because exams were just around the corner.

It was sad that I had to spend so much time studying and not checking on Teddy to see how he was doing. He eventually came back to school, but all the time that he had been away, I hadn't been able to find some time to contact him. Mel had sent him a couple of letters and that made me feel even worse.

When he came back he gave everyone the same story we had told, that he was sick. His friends believed it this time. I guess it was just because _he_ told them. I didn't really care.

I was getting quite sad. I wouldn't call it depressed, but I wasn't happy either. The shock from what had happened to us, exams and knowing that it all happened because of me wasn't doing me much good.

All my time was spent in the library with Janet and sometimes with Danus and Marius. I knew that this wasn't going to help at all but there wasn't anything else to do. Lycanthropy wasn't curable, which meant that Teddy was stuck with a curse for the rest of his life, and we didn't have the Prophecy, so I couldn't save the world from some crazy villain.

As May came closer, I was terrified to think that that meant another full moon. The first one had been pure torture for Teddy and now, so soon, there was another one. I was cursing the universe. Why did I bring this to him?

Janet noticed that something was wrong and asked me if I wanted to talk about it, reminding me what great a friend she is. But (a) she wouldn't understand and (b) I couldn't tell her. I just told her that I was anxious for the exams and that she shouldn't worry about me. She had nodded, but didn't look convinced.

And then not long after, I walked into the dorm and was met by something strange. Danus and Marius were both sitting on Marius' bed and the moment I walked in they appeared to stop talking. I raised an eyebrow because I knew they had been talking about me.

"What's up, guys?" I asked them.

"Nothing," Danus said too quickly. I shrugged and sat down on my bed.

"Danny," Marius said after a moment of silence "We're a bit worried. You've been acting strange the past weeks."

Of course they had been talking about _that_. Was there any one of my friends not talking about this now?

"I'm fine," I said.

"But you're not," Danus pressed "You know that you can tell us if something's wrong, right?"

"I know," I told him. I had told them about my family and aunt though. Did he need me to tell him?

"Then why aren't you telling us about this?" he asked me.

"Because you won't understand," I said before thinking that I should have probably said 'Because I'm fine.' Damn it!

"Come on," Marius said, getting up from the bed "It's not like your best friend was turned into a werewolf or something!"

I resisted the urge to groan. Honestly, could he not think of something better to say? It was almost as if he knew exactly what was going on!

"I'll get over it," I said.

"But…" Danus tried to say something but I cut him.

"No," I snapped "If I wanted to talk about it, I would. Now shut up and leave me the hell alone!"

The moment I said it, I regretted it. I shouldn't have snapped, they were only trying to be good friends and help me. And now Danus looked like he was about to cry, he was very sensitive. Marius seemed to be wondering if he should try to logic with me, beat me up or comfort our roommate. I spared him the first two options by leaving the dorm.

I seriously had to stop hurting the people I cared about.

I put on a happy face whenever I was around others from then on. We didn't talk about what had happened in the dorm again. Everything seemed to be going back to normal, until the day before the full moon.

Mel came and told me that Teddy was in the Hospital Wing because he had a fever and was throwing up. Naturally, we went to see him despite the guilt that was eating me alive.

Madam Pomfrey let us see him. He was awake, but looked like he had when we visited him at home last month. He made conversation and socialised with both of us, but I couldn't look him in the eyes because I was afraid of the pain and sadness that I would see in them. Both of them my fault.

I couldn't eat at lunch. My friends noticed something was wrong and tried talking to me again. This time, I just ignored them. I didn't want to lie that everything was alright, I didn't want to tell them and I didn't want to do something I was going to regret later.

As we were walking to our next class, a fourth year Slytherin girl came up to me. "Professor McGonagall wants to see you," she told me.

I groaned. "What have you done this time?" Zaria asked me.

I made my way to the Headmistress' office for the millionth time this year.

I went up the stairs expecting to see McGonagall sitting behind her desk waiting for me. That was exactly what I saw, but only with one small addition.

And that was Teddy's godfather, Harry Potter.

"I'm glad you could make it, Mr. Odny," the Headmistress told me "Please take a seat."

I sat in a chair in front of her desk, opposite the one Harry was sitting on. He smiled sweetly at me and I understood that I was about to have a conversation with him. I tried to ignore the thoughts that he wanted to talk to me about screwing up his godson's life.

"Mr. Potter wanted to talk to you," McGonagall confirmed my thoughts "So I'll give you too some privacy and get to my next class." She left the office and we heard the stairs going back into their spot, knowing that we were alone.

We looked at each other for a while until Harry spoke. "So, I hear you're not doing so well," he said.

Honestly! Everyone! _Everyone_ was talking about this!

"So?" I said. Maybe I shouldn't be so harsh on him, but I was sick of others trying to understand me.

"Danny, you shouldn't blame yourself about everything," Harry told me.

"Why?" I asked. I couldn't see a reason for this mess not to be my fault.

"Because I've been there too and trust me," Harry said "It's not going to fix anything and it will only destroy you."

That's when it clicked. Harry was the Boy Who Lived, the one destined to destroy Lord Voldemort. So many people must have died fighting by his side, he must have blamed himself about every single one of them, even though they weren't his fault. Could he understand my feelings?

"But if I hadn't let Teddy come with me…" I intervened.

"He would have had it his way one way or another," Harry didn't let me finish my sentence "He's very stubborn. I raised him, I would know. He would have grabbed onto you the last moment if he had to."

"But I let him go out there on his own," I insisted.

"Like I said," Harry replied "He wouldn't have let it go any other way. Danny, you have to realise that this is no one's fault and most importantly, it's not _your_ fault. If you carry this guilt, it will never make you feel good. I've done exactly what you are now, blamed myself for everything, and just a few years ago I thought that this can't all be me. Some of it just happened and I have to move on and have a normal life. You will only suffer and there are people who will hate to see you suffer."

"Teddy is suffering," I muttered.

"He will learn to live with it," said Harry "The thing about lycanthropy is that you shouldn't let it affect your life, you have to learn to include it in it. His father was a werewolf as well and that's exactly what he told me."

I sat and thought about what Harry had said. I knew that Teddy's dad, Remus, had also been a werewolf, but I hadn't really thought about how he had handled the situation. Maybe he was right. The best thing to do was to come to terms with yourself that this was going to happen once a month from now on. Other than that, it changed nothing. You could still have friends and family and run around and have fun. It would only be that night.

Then I was honest with myself. Teddy and Mel had wanted to come with me and had been very insistent. Now that I was thinking like that, I wouldn't have found a way to stop them even if I had tied them up.

And in the forest he would have just gone out and tried to fight the Death Eaters off despite Mel attempting to stop him. I _had_ made her agree, but even if I had disagreed, nothing would have changed.

The conclusion was that this wasn't my fault, and it wasn't Teddy's fault either. He hadn't brought this upon himself, he was only trying to be a good friend and help out. Harry was right, this was nobody's fault.

"I understand," I finally said.

The older wizard smiled. "Good," he said "But I have one more question for you. Why did the three of you want to go to the Department of Mysteries?"

I must have turned paler or something. I didn't want to tell Harry about it. There was a reason I hadn't told him in the Hospital and I didn't want to tell him now either. But I couldn't not tell him.

"We were looking for a Prophecy," I confessed. I felt relief and I felt guilt.

"What Prophecy?" Harry asked. I couldn't lie about it.

"One about the heir of Slytherin," I said.

Harry seemed confused. "Danny, what do you mean?" he asked me "Voldemort is dead and he was Slytherin's only heir."

"But he wasn't," I said and took a deep breath "I am his Heir."

I tried to see the emotions on his face, but he seemed expressionless. For all I knew he could be confused, angry, sad, even happy. But he kept staring at me, making me look away.

"You?" he finally said.

I nodded. "The Prophecy is about the Heir defeating Ahriman Tolfazor," I explained "I have to defeat an evil greater than Voldemort, and I can only do that if I hear the Prophecy."

"And why didn't any one of you tell me this?" Harry asked, taking me by surprise.

"I didn't want anyone to know," I said, realising how dumb I sounded "Only me, Mel, Teddy and Professor McGonagall know."

"Danny, this is serious," Harry leaned forward on his chair so we were closer "This is very important information. You can't keep this hidden from the Ministry, we are supposed to protect you all and we need to know everything in order to take precautions.

I felt even more stupid now that he said that. I should have thought of that. I looked down, at my shoes. "However, I will take your will into consideration and will not tell anyone else."

I looked back up and there was a soft smile on his face. "Really?" I asked him.

"Of course," he promised "But if something happens and it involves this, I _will_ report it to the Minister. And I will make a proper appointment for you to visit the Department of Mysteries. Alone."

"Thank you so much!" I exclaimed.

"You're welcome," he told me "Now get to class."

He winked as I walked out of the office with a totally different feeling. At least now I was finally going to get my hands on that Prophecy. And I knew what I had to do, help my friend through all the hard times, because that's what friendship was about, helping one another through thick and thin.


	21. Exams

**A chapter about something everyone hates, exams!**

Exams for the end of the year started in late May.

I couldn't think about Harry and the Prophecy because we were all dreadfully anxious, even though we had been working our butts off studying for the past couple of months. A boy from Hufflepuff was almost sent to the Hospital Wing for only studying and not eating or sleeping for two days straight and passing out during Herbology. The only thing I could think was, _'How come it wasn't a Ravenclaw?'_

Pretty heartless of me, but I couldn't help it.

My friends were getting letters from their parents telling them that they should do their best and get the best marks they could (with the occasional threat of confiscating their broomstick if they don't).

After two full moons and Mel and I's company, Teddy was slowly becoming accustomed to the whole werewolf thing. He was going back to being his normal happy self, but we knew that he couldn't go back to being his normal self again.

Hours and hours of being in the library paid off when the first exam was over, and that was Defence Against the Dark Arts. We had theoretical examination in the morning and practical in the afternoon. They were both easier than what I had expected, but maybe that was only because I loved Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Kettleburry had taught us very well and I was prepared for anything. She was quite young for a Professor, but she was a very good one. Dominic said that she was too young to teach, but I think he barely thought so himself.

The next lesson was Charms. That was one that I was a bit concerned about. It's not that I didn't like the lesson, I just found it a little hard to do some of the spells. The theory I was good at, I was only worried about the practical part of the examination.

"It's not hard at all," Janet told me the day before the exam in the common room as she waved her wand around "They'll only ask you silly stuff."

"But I don't think I can do anything," I said and sank down in an armchair after failing for the fifth time to cast a Severing Charm.

"Just relax," she said and grabbed my hand because I was just about to cast a spell with unknown consequences into the distance "You'll do fine."

"How is your studying going?" I asked her.

"Great," she replied "But I need History of Magic notes."

That was true. Neither one of us had noticed that we had kept no notes throughout the entire year and we had completely forgotten that it was an actual lesson. We hadn't studied for it yet and had just recently discovered this.

One day we saw Dominic and Marius reading something and when we asked them what it was, they said that they had borrowed a Ravenclaw's History of Magic notes. That's when it hit us. I thought about Mel because she had kept notes at the start of the year. But then she started falling asleep. James certainly took notes, but it would be awkward to ask _him_. Marius and Dominic were certainly not parting with theirs.

So that meant that we had to think of something quickly. Luckily it was the last lesson we had exams for.

For now, I only had to focus on Charms. I was going to worry about History of Magic when the time came. That probably meant that I would worry about it the day of the exam, but whatever.

When the morning came, I just wanted to stay in bed and hide from the world, hoping the Professors wouldn't notice me and I would miss the exam. But no such luck. "Daniel, you need to face your fears!" Danus said sternly as he pulled the covers off me. I swore.

"Language," my dorm mate said.

I groaned and got out of bed, bumping into him on purpose on my way to the bathroom.

The theoretical test went great. Then I went back to the Slytherin common room and practiced the spells. For the first time I actually managed the Severing Charm, but only once. The Wand-Lighting Charm was literally the easier thing in the world, so I practiced once and got it straight away.

In the practical exam, I was asked to make a pineapple tap dance across the desk Professor Flitwick sat behind. That was a spell that had taken me ages to muster and had only done so the night before. It was a huge relief when I cast it and it worked.

"And next," Flitwick said as he scribbled something on the parchment in front of him "I would like to see you cast a Wand-Lighting Charm."

Merlin must have heard my wishes. "Lumos," I said and my wand's tip lit up brightly.

"And the counterspell?" Flitwick asked as he wrote something down again.

"Nox," I said and the light went out.

"Very good," Flitwick sounded pleased.

We went on for a little longer. I thought it would be over soon. I had managed all the spells so far, only it had taken me two tries to cast the unlocking charm. I guess all that studying had paid off in the end.

"Thank you very much," my Professor said "You may leave."

I put my wand in my pocket and walked out of the classroom, breathing a sigh of relief. Janet, Dominic, Danus and Zaria were certainly done, as they were called in before me, so I went to the common room to find them and start studying for the next exam, Astronomy.

We studied our maps and everything we'd done during the lessons of this year, but at some point I got really tired. My eyes hurt from all the reading. I decided to take a small break and go outside. "I'm going to get some air," I excused myself. Zaria nodded but the other three didn't even notice.

I walked out into the courtyard and felt like I hadn't seen the sun in years. The only thing keeping me from running around like a crazy five-year-old was a little voice in my head saying, "You've grown up, Danny. There are some things you can't do anymore."

So I simply sat down on a bench. I was relaxing when suddenly, "Boo!" I jumped up and yelled out in fright. The whole Hogwarts castle must have heard me. I turned around and who did I see other than Melena Andrews.

"It's not my fault," she said, lifting her hands up "You were asking for it."

"How on earth was I asking for it?" I asked her, only a little annoyed.

"By sitting here," she said and shrugged.

I laughed. That's why you needed friends like Mel. She sat down next to me and we talked about our exams so far. She said she had gone okay, but not as well as me. She mustn't be doing too well then because mine were average.

"Have you seen Teddy?" I asked her.

"Not since the full moon," she said "I had to study."

"How do you think he's doing?" I asked.

"He's lucky," she said "The next one isn't until near the end of the month, so he'll be home with his grandmother."

"Yeah," I agreed. Friends were great, but nothing compared to family. It would be a huge relief for Teddy to be with his grandmother and to have her with him to help him heal.

Right then, I caught sight of Teddy and his Hufflepuff friends. They were walking across the courtyard together talking. I really wanted to talk to them. I was going to call out to them, but Mel beat me to it.

"Teddy, Liam, Charlotte, Rey," she said too loudly.

They turned around, saw us and smiled. They started walking towards us. "Hi, little first years," Rey said when they were near us.

"Hello, second years," I said in reply "Why aren't you studying?"

"We needed a break," Teddy explained "Charlotte was taking studying too seriously."

"It's not my fault I want to have good grades," Charlotte defended herself.

"Good marks is one thing," Rey told her "Overusing your brain is another, dear."

Charlotte stuck her tongue out at her.

"How has second year been treating you?" Mel asked them.

"It's definitely more challenging than first year," Liam said "But it's going good. I think it's easier to work when you have the basic idea of what exams are like from first year."

"That's true," Teddy agreed.

After about an hour we decided to go our own ways and revise studying. There were more people in the common room now. The girls had gone to their dorm to study, but my other friends were there. We studied our maps and memorised as many planets, stars and solar systems we could.

It was officially the day of our last exam, History of Magic. Janet and I had borrowed the notes of a Ravenclaw some older Slytherin hung from the bathroom ceiling. Maybe borrowed wasn't the right word, we found them on the floor and took them, but they were pretty good. At least the book made more sense now.

As I was enjoying some scrambled eggs and bacon, Azriel brought me my third letter of the year. I expected it wouldn't be something too serious, because everything had passed, so I casually opened it to see what it was.

When I did, my eyes flew out of my skull and I started choking.

Danus and Zaria who were sitting next to me, one on each side, saved my life. "What the heck was that?" Danus asked.

I didn't answer, instead I ran out of the Great Hall and read the letter again in privacy.

 _Danny,_

 _I managed to convince the Minister to let you into the Ministry under my supervision. In case you're asked, I said that you want to write an essay on the Department of Mysteries next year and you want to have a look around._

 _I'll meet you at the main entrance when you've finished your exam. Good luck on it by the way._

 _See you soon,_

 _Harry P._


	22. See You Next Year

**This is the final chapter! I will post another story after this, but stay tuned for the sequel, Heir Of Slytherin Book 2. Love y'all!**

After my exam in History of Magic, which went surprisingly well, I went to the main entrance to meet up with Harry. I have no idea how I managed to keep concentrated during the test while knowing that I was going to take the Prophecy and hear it for the first time in a matter of hours.

True to his word, Harry was waiting for me outside. He had told Filch to let me out, otherwise the caretaker wouldn't have let me near the door at this time, while everybody else was inside.

"Hello," Harry greeted me. He was dressed in a more formal outfit than he usually was, so I felt a bit weird being dressed in simple jeans and a T-shirt. I had changed out of my school robes before going to meet him.

"Thank you so much for doing this," I said, meaning every word.

"You can thank me when we have the Prophecy," he said. He sounded a bit anxious, but that was normal. I was anxious too.

"Have you apparated before?" Harry asked me.

"No," I answered.

"Hold onto my arm and don't let go," he instructed me.

Janet's book had taught me about apparating and it hadn't sounded very pleasant. I hesitantly held onto Harry's arm and immediately felt like I was being pressed into a thin tube. I was afraid that my face was going to be ripped off by the force with which we were travelling through it.

I felt my feet touch solid ground again and was relieved. I thought I was going to throw up, but after some adjusting I was fine. Harry was by my side, watching me cautiously. My reaction must have been common.

"You okay?" he asked me.

I nodded.

"Let's go," he said and walked towards a telephone booth.

I took the time to go inside to study my surroundings. We appeared to be in a small street in London. No Muggles appeared to come here and apart from a few houses, the only thing there was a red phone booth. Harry stepped inside and told me to come with him.

He took the receiver in his hands dialled the numbers 62442. A female voice that sounded like it was coming from some kind of speaker was heard. "Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business," it said.

"Harry Potter, head of the Auror department," Harry said "I'm bringing Daniel Odny to see the Department of Mysteries for an essay in school."

"Thank you," said the voice "Visitor, please take the badge and attach it to the front of your robes."

A silver badge with the words _Daniel Odny, Visit for an Essay_ on it slid out of the metal chute you usually see coins coming out of. I wasn't wearing robes, so I just pinned it to my T-shirt. The voice said that I would have to present my wand and then we started descending into the ground.

The Ministry was underground and huge. The windows showed a fake outside, Harry explained because it was all underground and you couldn't see the outside world form under the ground. Someone examined my wand and gave it back to me after doing so. Harry led me to an elevator. It was crowded with other people who hopped off at stops it made, we got off at Level 9, the Department of Mysteries.

I followed the Auror to the Hall of Prophecy. It was a cold room and I shivered, as I wasn't dressed warm enough, but it was very high and full of nothing but towering shelves covered in small, dusty, glass orbs. They glimmered dully in the light issuing from more candle brackets set at intervals along the shelves, their flames burning blue.

I was amazed and just stood there staring at them. "The first time _I_ came here," Harry said "I didn't have time to admire it. I was with some of my friends and we were trying to go in and out alive."

We walked through the shelves trying to find the right Prophecy. Harry told me that it would have a tag with my name, or maybe just Heir of Slytherin, and Tolfazor's name on it.

It was taking such a long time that I was getting tired and bored of my life. I scanned every single orb, looking at the names on the tags.

 _Grace King. Walter Smouldge. Prian. Markle. Battem. Odny…_

Wait, what?! I looked at the orb. The tag said _Ahriman Tolfazor and Daniel Odny_. "I found it," I called out.

Harry was next to me in a matter of seconds. "Take it," he told me.

I reached out and picked it up with my trembling hand. I held it for a moment before a voice spoke out of it.

" _The darkness isn't over, the worst it coming… Only one can stop it, the one we least expect. Only when the four unite and with the power of the serpent can the Heir destroy the darkness. It should be where it all started, on the night it all started. He will question right and wrong, but he will save us all. Beware, the darkness is coming."_

I heard the words and knew in my heart that they were indeed meant for me. The problem was, I didn't understand what it wanted me to do.

I looked up at Harry. He was just as clueless as I was.

* * *

Harry dropped me back at school later. He took me out for lunch because I missed the one at Hogwarts. It was a nice place, but all I could think about was the Prophecy. I had only heard it once, but I had memorised it already.

When I was back in my dorm, I secretly scribbled it on a piece of parchment. Luckily no one else was there, not even James.

We paid no more attention to the exams the rest of the day. We spent all our time together with my friends and Mel spent the day with Teddy and the Hufflepuffs. We didn't even talk about the test or anything.

We got into last day mischief, jumping into the lake and swimming with our robes on, turning two trees yellow and writing 'SLYTHERIN RULES!' on the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables in the Great Hall. Last but not least, we made the gargoyle guarding McGonagall's office scream, "Fuck," at anyone who walked in front of it. You could see all the Professors trying to get rid of it, only earning more screams from it. It was priceless.

Ravenclaw Felix, who I had met on the boat before our sorting, was top of the year, and Shane Celther was top of his.

At dinner, the winner of the House Cup was announced. Gryffindor won, but I couldn't be sad because at least Mel was a Gryffindor. Slytherin did come first when it came to Quidditch though. Hufflepuff came second and I was so proud of Teddy, because they wouldn't have done so well if he hadn't been such an excellent Seeker.

The morning we would leave came to quick.

I packed my trunk and looked around the dorm and in our bathroom trying to see if I had left anything behind. I somehow wished I had because maybe I would spend more time here.

I didn't want to leave. In just one year Hogwarts had become my home more than the orphanage had ever been. And it was way cooler living with my friends. I was certainly going to miss each and every one of them, but we had agreed to send letters to each other throughout the summer holidays until we came back.

We were all standing at the platform at Hogsmeade, waiting for the Hogwarts Express to come and take us to Platform 9 ¾. We had our trunks at our feet, because they were too heavy to hold up all the time and Azriel was in his cage, which I had placed on top of the trunk.

Even my owl didn't want to leave. It had literally taken me ages to get him out of the owlery and into the cage. He must have made some friends too this year. "Don't worry, Az," I told him, stroking his feathers "You'll see them again in September."

We heard the train's whistle in the distance. I hugged Janet, Danus, Marius, Dominic and Zaria goodbye, because I had agreed to sit with Mel and Teddy on the train so that I could tell them about the Prophecy. I saw Teddy doing the same to Liam, Rey and Charlotte. "See you next year," Janet said as I hugged her.

We hopped onto the train and the three of us found an empty compartment. We didn't say anything until the train started moving, savouring our last moments at Hogwarts. When we left the station, I found myself looking out the window at the Hogwarts castle until it vanished out of my sight.

"So what happened with Harry?" Mel started the conversation.

"We found the Prophecy," I said and pulled the piece of parchment out of my trunk. I said it to them and then they read it for themselves.

"The four unite? Power of the serpent?" Mel read as if it was in another language "What the hell does this mean?"

"Honestly, I have no idea," I admitted.

"But at least this is something," Teddy said "We have the Prophecy, now all we have to do is figure it out. It gives us something to do over the holidays."

Mel and I didn't say anything. This was more complicated than we thought it would be. But Teddy was right. Those two had found the heir of Slytherin all by themselves and now there was me as well. The three of us could crack this and defeat Tolfazor for good.

And, like Teddy said, it gave us an excuse to meet up more often over the summer.

The rest of the train ride was spent remembering things from the year that had just passed. We even talked about things we had all seen happen, but it was still fun to remember them. We said lame jokes and spent loads of our money on candy we weren't even sure we could eat. I managed two chocolate frogs, some Every Flavour Beans, three cauldron cakes, five pumpkin pasties and a liquorice wand. I was going to regret it later.

The train pulled up in front of the station. Witches and wizards of all ages were standing on the platform, waiting for their loved ones to get off the train and be reunited with them.

Teddy ran to his Uncle Harry and grandmother and then we all went to see a witch and wizard who I guessed must be Mel's parents. Her mum was blond with wavy hair and green eyes while her father was a tall man with brown hair and dark but at the same time friendly eyes. Her mum was wearing blue robes and her father was wearing green ones.

As we were walking towards them, a sudden thought struck me. "Mel," I said to my best friend "Where am I going to stay?"

She smiled. "You're about to find out my dear friend," she said with a smirk. But I could see just a tinge of worry in her eyes. I would have to wait and see what this was all about.

As the group walked towards the entrance to the platform, I saw in the corner of my eye James Candon getting off the train. He looked a bit paler than usual and almost as if he was scared.

' _I didn't really get to know James this year,'_ I thought. Oh well, that was something I would have to look into next year.

~THE END~

 **I hope you enjoyed this. I love all of you immensely and thank you for reading this, since so much hard work was put into it. You can't understand what it means to me! *blows kiss***

 **-Elektra Elentari**


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